Skip to main content
Rangitikei District Council strapline

Related Pages

Water

Please see the Water Supply Status page for the latest on water supply and restrictions

Rangitīkei District Council supplies water to the residents of the district via six urban and four rural schemes.

Urban Schemes

  • Bulls – 450 connections
  • Hunterville – 250 connections
  • Mangaweka – 100 connections
  • Marton – 2300 connections
  • Rātana – 120 connections
  • Taihape – 900 connections

The six urban schemes together consume on average 7,800 m3 per day via 139.2 kilometres of reticulation (pipelines). The schemes have a replacement value of $107M.

Each community or scheme have their own source and treatment plants with the exception of Hunterville urban, which is supplied from the Hunterville Rural Scheme but treats to a potable standard before distribution. The Hunterville community is also on universal metering.

Rural Schemes

The four rural schemes together consume on average 4,700 m3 per day via 226.4 kilometres of reticulation (pipelines).

Rural schemes are for agricultural purposes only and are not treated to a potable standard.

Full details of Council’s plans to manage its water assets can be found in the:

Asset Management Plan 3 Waters 2021-2031

Drinking Water Projects

Between 2021 and 2024, Council is undertaking an ambitious programme of works to improve and future proof our drinking water systems. We have three tranches of work to undertake:

Renewals: In the 2021/22 financial year, Council will invest $250,000 to replace pipes and pumping stations across our district, we focus on known network issues and assets that are at the end of their expected lifespan. Funding for renewals will continue at this rate of investment for the remainder of the LTP period.

Strategy

In 2019, we started to revise our Asset Management Strategy for the drinking water, wastewater and storm water assets. The strategy will include more detailed assessments of asset performance and conditions of the Three Waters networks. Collecting more accurate asset data will continue for the next three years and is expected to be completed by 2024. On completion, the new asset management strategy will produce a 30-year prioritised programme of works for renewals, performance upgrades and network growth for the Three Waters assets. The following factors will significantly contribute to infrastructure investment decisions:

  • changing demand for services;
  • rising public health and environmental outcomes;
  • resilience; and
  • Affordability.

Major Projects we are committed to

2021/2022

    • A new production bore for Marton raw water source – We will invest $1M in the construction of the new bore which will provide our community with resilience and help meet the demands of growth.
    • A new Marton Treatment Plant – We will invest $400,000 to finalise the design of the new treatment plant. This project aims to provide Marton with an improved water supply to resolve the historic odour and taste challenges.

    2022/2023

    • A new Marton Treatment Plant – We will invest $5M to construct a new water treatment plant.

    2023/2024

      • A new Marton Treatment Plant – We will invest $5M to complete construction and commission the new treatment plant which will lead to improved taste and reduce odour of the water for the residents and businesses.

      Public Notices

      26 JANUARY 2023

      Notice Relating to PFAS and PFOA - Bulls Water Rangitikei District

      Council supplies safe drinking water to all our communities, including the Bulls community, in accordance with the New Zealand Drinking Water Standards, the 2021 Water Services Act and the new Drinking Water Standards. The standards set limits for the concentration of determinants in drinking water. The limits are referred to as maximum acceptable values (MAVs). The MAVs for any determinant must not be exceeded at any time.

      Under the Water Services Act 2021, all drinking water suppliers must ensure that the drinking water they supply complies with the standards, regardless of the nature of the source water used or the number of people served by the supply. The standards do not require any pre-determined sampling and testing intervals for PFAS in drinking water supplies, but due to presence of PFAS in the catchment RDC monitor the presence of PFAS in the Bulls supply from time to time to make sure the values are not changing.

      The last PFAS and PFAS TOP assay tests were completed in 2022 and returned results well below the national limits and actually close to the undetectable limits of the laboratory tests. You can view the results here. The TOP assay test methodology is used to transform the PFAS precursors in samples to measurable compounds to return a more accurate result of the potential long term exposure. The PFAS TOP assay test returned low results close to the undetectable limits similar to the PFAS test results. We are currently preparing to collect new samples for testing and expect to have results by October this year. RDC will be sampling for PFAS on a two yearly basis due to the more detailed results produced by the TOP assay methodology. If any conditions in the catchment changes, or if the results indicates any change from previous samples, the sampling intervals will be increased accordingly.