Marton New Public Water Supply Bore

When it comes to water supplies only three words matter—safe, secure and sustainable. When the town of Marton faced growing insecurity of its reservoir supplied water, the Rangitīkei District Council   recommended a new well bore accessing groundwater from aquifers, with the aim to supply 5,000 cubic metres of raw water daily to the treatment plant.

The hydrogeology in the upper part of the Rangitīkei groundwater system isn’t well characterized, especially at depth—it’s important to place the bore screen as deep as possible to avoid geotechnical risks and reduce the possibility of contamination. We provided hydrogeological advice on the bore location, drilling target depths, sampling, development, and testing of an exploratory bore—with the resulting data aiding in designing the new production bore. Partnering with Massey University, we completed volcanic ash analysis for stratigraphic correlation of borehole drilling cuttings and cropping out strata, gaining critical data for deciding bore screen depth and other design elements.

Our technical report helped to procure the groundwater take resource consent application. By providing high-quality advice to the client and regulators, we were able to help the Council provide a safe, secure, and sustainable water source for current and future generations of Marton residents.