Napier City Council spending almost $4000 per month dealing with brown water complaints Napier City Council is spending almost $4000 per month, on average, flushing out water pipes due to complaints about discoloured water.
Figures obtained under the Official Information Act show the average cost per month of flushing out water pipes has been $3875 in the 19 months between May of 2017 and November last year.
The highest number of complaints received in a month was 185, in December of 2017, while the lowest number was 16, received in March last year.
NCC says the discolouration is the result of "harmless biofilm" being washed out of the pipes during routine maintenance.
Christchurch City Council, which in March chlorinated its water supply for similar reasons to Napier, says on its website that "chlorine is a powerful oxidising agent".
"It might also react with iron in the old cast iron mains and it will react with any other organic material it comes across."
NCC maintained the discoloured water was purely an aesthetic issue and never expressly warned residents not to drink it.
Source: 1 NEWS After 1 NEWS ran a story about the results, the council continued to maintain it was safe to drink the water, but also updated their website, saying that "to have any health effects from drinking this water, you would need to ingest it frequently over a long period of time".
They also included advice from Dr Belinda Cridge, Programme Director of University of Otago’s Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, who recommended a precautionary approach for vulnerable groups who may drink the water.
The groups include infants, pregnant women and the elderly.