7 December 2020
Media: NZ Herald - Local Focus
Topic: Council geothermal inspector role
Enquiry
Reporter sought a "day in the life' on camera interview with Council's geothermal inspector Peter Brownbridge for a Local Focus summer series.
Questions included:
What's a typical callout?
Any memorable callouts?
Is it a passion of yours?
What does the work of your role involve?
Is Rotorua more thermal than other places?
Best part of the job, most challenging part of the job?
Response
Responses from Peter Brownbridge, council licensing officer and geothermal inspector
What's a typical callout?
A typical callout could be anything from someone with a hole appearing in their garden, to manmade infrastructure that's failed and someone has steam in their backyard. A typical call out these days is something like steam appearing in peoples gardens.
Any memorable callouts?
I do have a couple but it's mostly the people that I meet that make them memorable we had an incident a few years ago where an old well failed and was shooting a jet of steam underpressure across Lake Rd and what was memorable was sitting across the road from it with an elderly gentleman while we were closing the road down.
Is it a passion of yours?
I've found it incredibly interesting. I do enjoy the work and learning about it finding out more about what's under my feet and talking to elderly locals so yes I guess it is a passion.
What does the work of your role involve?
A lot of the time it's about reassuring people that everything is ok. Other times it's about investigating smells, geothermal gases. Other times it's about investigating infrastructure and bringing together the right people to fix any issues.
Is Rotorua more thermal than other places?
Rotorua is in a caldera and there are places that are quite thermal and there are other places that aren't. We are unique in that our city has been built in and around geothermal activity but it's where we are we're quite stable. Things don't pop up out of the blue in places we've never seen before.
Best part of the job, most challenging part of the job?
Best art of the job is the people you meet or work with, public, regional council, public health. Most challenging is when old geothermal wells suddenly come to life with steam or water coming to the surface and the challenging part is convincing people that these need to be filled with cement and there is a bit of cost involved but it's to make people feel safe.
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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Whittaker Rd development
Enquiry
I remembered recently plans for a development at 54 Whittaker Rd.
The last thing I could find on this topic was out story HERE on the hearing in July 2019. When searching the address on the council website I could not see any further updates.
Can you please advise where in the process this application is in the first instance, and I, or another reporter, may come back to you with further questions.
Response
The reporter was advised that the Commissioner has issued the resource consent for 54 Whittaker Road.
The reporter was provided with publicly available documentation relating to the resource consent.