Dave received a phone call from the company site engineer.  Effluent from the large septic tank serving the factory and staff houses, was overflowing into a local stream, odours from the septic tanks at the staff houses were causing complaints and to make matters worse, the ground got so wet in winter that lawnmowers got stuck in the back yard.
Dave flew down to Westport, carried out a site inspection and advised that the existing system and pipe work had to be replaced.  Dave designed a community sewage system involving new septic tanks for each house and 4 new tanks around the factory, which was staffed by 150 workers.
The effluent from each septic tank was pumped to a central community secondary sewage treatment system.  The highly treated sewage was pumped to a modified land application area where the ground was ‘flipped’ (West Coast terminology) so the area did not become saturated in winter.
This system was the first one on the West Coast and Dave was invited to present a paper at the NZ Water and Waste annual conference in Christchurch on the engineering of this project.  The design approach used at Holcim Cement would be suitable for most coastal communities which are experiencing sewage disposal problems.

The existing effluent field had failed after only 5 years operation.  Dave was appointed Project Manager to design the new system, call tenders and oversee the installation.  The project had to be completed in record time as untreated effluent was flowing to the surface.
Dave designed a primary treatment system utilising the existing septic tank and pumping the filtered effluent into a series of shallow soakage trenches via an automatic dosing system.

When Crusader Meats applied for an extension to their Resource Consent there were a number of objections, some relating to the wastewater discharge from the ablution block serving the staff. There are 110 staff and Dave was asked to investigate the existing system and certify that it was functioning correctly. He carried out a detailed investigation and concluded that the effluent was being discharged into ground within the land owned by Crusader Meats and that no contamination of groundwater was being experienced. His report was accepted by Horizons mw (formally the Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Council) and the objections in respect to sewage disposal, were overcome.