Long awaited clean-up of New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park lake under way

Desludging of the lakes in New Plymouth’s most famous park is underway.

As lakes go, Pukekura Park’s are on the murky side and the last time New Plymouth District Council tried to clean them in 2013, the $2 million job was abandoned as stinky sediment ended up mistakenly being pumped back in.

The 2020 lake clean-up is part of a $2.45m water quality project at the park.

The machines, imported from Sweden by contractor Glasgow Contracting, began clearing sludge from the main lake this week after earlier projects cleaning up the ponds at Bowl of Brooklands and the waterway along Struan Walkway.

Called the Trexor Clean Stream, the desludgers chug along like a home built tugboat, puttering across the lake before sitting in place and dredging up muck.

The machines suck up the silt and water, which is then mixed with an agent that causes the silt to settle. The clear water can then be pumped back into the lake.

Kade Glasgow, a director of Glasgow Contracting, said if both desludging machines were working it was possible to remove 100 cubic metres a day. If everything went to plan.

On Wednesday morning, a twisted piece of metal got stuck in the front of the machine and had to be cleared before dredging could resume.

At this stage the machines will be at the park until early Summer, he said.

Across the whole park, there was 17,000cum of silt to remove – more than six Olympic-sized swimming pools. For the main lake it was 8600cum.

In 2014, following the failed desludging project, district councillors argued over whether to re-tender the work.

Several said the lakes did not warrant the spending as they were “duck ponds”. The council declined to re-tender the project but left it to the Long-Term Plan.

Apart from a trial run last year, the silt has not been cleared since 1996.

The current project will be completed over two years to minimise disruption to park users and aquatic life.

Source: stuff.co.nz