Clearwater Wellington wastewater project

The Clearwater Wellington scheme is a wastewater project for the city of Wellington to halt the 100-year-old practice of disposal of raw sewage via a short sea outfall into the Cook Strait and replace it with a modern state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant, Not only did Wellington make the leap from disposal of raw sewage to secondary treated disinfected treatment in one step, but the project itself was pioneering, as it was one of the first wastewater projects of its kind in New Zealand to be tendered as a design, build and operate contract. The advantages of a traditional design and build contract were taken one step further to include the synergy of the operations element. This paper will provide the reader with a historical perspective and an introduction to the Clearwater Wellington project, focusing on aspects which are pioneering and unique to New Zealand.