Filtering device to improve stormwater quality

15 May 2017

A new filtering device set to be installed on the lakefront will help prevent sediment, oil and debris from entering Lake Taupo.

The underground stormwater quality improvement device will be located near the hot water beach at the base of Mere Road. This will be the second device of its kind operating on the Taupo lakefront, after one was installed near the Lake Taupo Hole in One Challenge last year.

Stormwater flows into a vortex which separates and removes contaminants from the water, resulting in cleaner water discharging into the lake. Stormwater and solid waste asset manager Brent Aitken said the new filtering device was being installed after the first was deemed successful in its several months of operation.

"The first filter we installed last year near the Lake Taupo Hole in One Challenge has already had four cubic metres of waste emptied from it. It's having a really positive effect on the quality of stormwater going into the lake, so we want to expand the project to continue that," he said.

The devices have been budgeted for in the Long-term Plan 2015-2025 as part of the council's commitment to looking after the environment. They work downstream of Enviropods already installed in drains around Taupo that collect floating litter before it reaches the stormwater network.

Spartan Construction will install the latest device later this month.