Key Pain Farm questions need public answers

By Councillor Aidan Ellims

In the last week or so, Pain Estate has been a hot topic of concern around town. This has stemmed from a submission by council staff to the Wairarapa Combined District Plan last year, designating the whole of Pain Estate, all 85 hectares, to be used for waste water disposal.

Some residents will be aware that George Pain’s will in 1932 “devised” certain lands to the

Martinborough Borough Council, upon Trust, to be held on behalf of the inhabitants of Martinborough for the purposes of creating a park and/or sportsground for the children and residents.

In 1966 as Martinborough was not growing and the Borough Council did not want any more parks or sportsgrounds, they sought a ruling from the Supreme Court to vary the will and allow that the income from the trust lands should be used in maintaining and improving the boroughs parks, sports grounds, camping ground, etc.

Fast forward to 2011, when Council obtained a legal opinion as to whether they could use Pain Estate income elsewhere around the South Wairarapa and whether they could use Pain Estate for the disposal of treated waste water to land.

Council received that advice and then in 2013/14 started work on obtaining a 35 year resource consent for the Martinborough Waste Water Treatment Plant with a long term plan to stop disposing of treated waste water into the Ruamahunga River and start disposal onto land.

In February 2016, Council received the 35-year resource consent which provided a staged 

approach to irrigate treated waste water onto land. The first stages involved irrigating onto Council- owned land adjacent to the Waste Water Plant, while the second stage forecast for 2030 when 42% of treated waste water would be pumped and piped to Pain Estate where it would be irrigated over 53 hectares. The final stage in 2035 is for 100% of Martinborough’s treated waste water to be irrigated to land.

When I was first elected to the Martinborough Community Board in 2019 I learnt of the plan to use Pain Estate for disposing of our treated wastewater and that the land used for this could not be leased out for normal farm operations. I was told that Council would then be paying the equivalent lease amount to Pain Estate so that MCB could distribute those funds within the community.

Recently we have learnt all of Pain Estate’s 85 hectares has been designated for wastewater disposal, as opposed to 53 hectares. 

I, the MCB and a lot of residents are keen to understand why this has occurred.

I know that some residents neighbouring Pain Estate have written to the MCB and council asking questions about the resource consent to irrigate treated wastewater. The topic has also been covered in the Wairarapa Times Age, as well as plenty of comment on social media.

As a result of public concerns and questions raised, our council meeting on 21 February voted for the CEO to prepare a report for the next council meeting detailing the history behind Pain Farm being permitted to be used for treated waste water disposal, as well as obtaining a new legal opinion regarding the use of Pain Farm for this purpose.

Our CEO has also been asked to publish key findings, or part of them prior to the next council meeting so that residents are aware of the information prior to the meeting.

I, along with many locals have questions about this matter and am keen to see the information that will be provided by our CEO and staff. I also would like to understand whether a plan designed 8-10 years ago is still the best available proposal for 2024 or 2030 moving forward for Martinborough.

In 2016, the consent stipulated that by 2030, 42% of treated wastewater would be pumped and piped from the treatment plant a distance of 2.1 kilometres to Pain Estate. This was priced at $2.15 million, while from 2030 to 2035, $2.4 million is planned to be spent on building additional storage for treated waste water so 100% can be irrigated to land.

We all know that infrastructure costs have escalated over the years, so I am keen to understand now, in 2024, what these costs would be and whether there is a more cost-effective solution to dispose of our treated waste water.

In recent years, council has spent a lot of money designing a new waste water treatment system for Featherston, so could some of this technology/system be replicated for the Martinborough Waste Water Treatment Plant?

Once the report from our CEO is completed and the new legal opinion obtained, we will all have up to date information to work with and move forward.

We are still in the middle of a good old Wairarapa summer with the hills brown and vineyard folk happy with the hot and dry temperatures. I’ve commented to a few people that this is a summer which we haven’t had for a number of years now.

All the best for March. Looking around Martinborough, the nets are all on the vines, so it is not long to harvest, yet farmers will be looking forward to rain, as well folks in town so that the gardens can recover from this dry summer. 

If you wish to contact me to discuss any issues, please email me on aidan.ellims@swdc.govt.nz