When Fonterra needed a water treatment plant upgrade we mapped out a solution which not only met their needs in the most effective manner but also provided a solution to local farmers running a rural water supply scheme.

The Fonterra Whareroa site is one of the largest dairy processing sites in the Southern Hemisphere. The 30ML/d water treatment plant which supplies water to the site was ageing and starting to pose a supply risk. Fonterra engaged us to map out a future-proofing solution for them. We decided the best action was to develop a new treatment plant on a greenfield site which could be built and commissioned with the existing plant still in service.

Our team developed the FIDIC Design & Build contract, led the tender review, performed design reviews, led the HAZOP and provided technical oversight of commissioning and performance testing.

The tender was won by Fulton Hogan and Beca. The project was completed on budget and in less than 1 year and went into supply on the 1st August 2016. The new plant features the Lutra Compass coagulant control system and uses Lutra Infrastructure Data to report on Drinking Water Standards compliance.

At the same time the Whareroa replacement project was running, our team helped the nearby Cold Creek rural water supply scheme, which is managed by Fonterra farmers, to increase the capacity and improve the resilience of their 8ML/d scheme. We designed a win-win solution whereby the old Whareroa filters were removed, refurbished and re-utilised at Cold Creek.

"I very much enjoyed working with the professional team at Lutra. They have a wide variety of industry knowledge and provided great designs which offered cost effective solutions which was further backed up by support. They quickly responded to queries and issues."

Adam Cope - Fonterra Project Manager