History: 1926-1973

Lower Hutt aquifer and the Hutt River Scheme

Until the 1920s, Wellington City had looked after its water needs independently of the increasing number of small boroughs springing up around its outskirts. This began to change from 1926.

1926 - a number of local authorities asked the Wellington City Council to join forces with them to supply water to all of the greater Wellington region. The Wellington City & Suburban Water Board, along with an empowering Act of Parliament, was established in 1927, marking the beginning of co-operative development of water supply in the Wellington area. The Act vested Wellington City Corporation with watershed land for the Akatarawa, Whakatiki, Hutt and Pakuratahi rivers; some 27,000 hectares in total.

1929 - the Water Board recommended a scheme on the Hutt River to meet all the requirements of Wellington and the suburban areas for the next 20 years. Lower Hutt and Petone rejected the proposal and withdrew from the Board, choosing instead to develop artesian sources in the Hutt Valley. Without these bodies to share the cost of developing the Hutt River proposal, it was abandoned.

1930s - Wellington City again needed more water and followed Lower Hutt and Petone by tapping artesian sources beneath the Hutt Valley. A pumping station was built at Gear Island and the water fed into the Wainuiomata-Wellington pipeline. Upper Hutt built the Akatarawa Dam in 1930 and augmented this with several wells. Lower Hutt built two wells and a pumping station at Birch Street, while Eastbourne Borough was connected to artesian bores in Lower Hutt.

1943 - new large-scale Government housing development planned for the western appproach to Wellington would need a water supply, so the Government agreed to help with the cost of developing the Hutt River Scheme. An intake weir was built on the Hutt River at Kaitoke, together with a 56-kilometre pipeline linking it to the Lower Karori Reservoir. The first supply, to Upper Hutt, was in 1954. The pipeline was extended through the upper Hutt Valley, over Haywards Hill and down through the Porirua Basin and Johnsonville to Karori over the next three years.

1946 - Lower Hutt Borough built a second bore-water pumping station at Hutt Park.

1957 - although water-related health problems had been greatly reduced during the previous 80 years, there were still complaints about water quality. In 1957 new public health standards led to chlorine being added to the water supplied from Wainuiomata, Karori and Kaitoke, to disinfect it. In the same year fluoridation of the Lower Hutt artesian water supply began, to improve dental health.

1959 - the Hutt Valley Underground Water Authority was established to safeguard artesian water supplies from overuse and pollution.

1965 - fluoride was introduced to the Wainuiomata, Orongorongo and Hutt River supplies to improve dental health.

1966 - Buick Street Pumping Station was completed, providing a dedicated artesian bore-water supply to Petone and Korokoro. Water supply from Korokoro Stream had been discontinued in 1962.

1973 - the Wellington Regional Water Board (WRWB)was formed in response to an act of parliament requiring water resources to be managed on a regional basis. The Hutt River Board and the Hutt Valley Underground Water Authority became part of the WRWB. For the first time, the bulk water supply resources of the Wellington region were consolidated under a single controlling authority.