Thursday 29 April 2004

This site will be updated on 6 May  2004 at 17:30

Business - Sakenuus

• Concern over proposal for Paarl Mountain
• Glenwood shines at wine awards
• Meeting to discuss drilling in mountain

KAASKAMPIOENE. Drie Paarlse kaasprodusente het by vanjaar se Nasionale Suiwelkampioenskappe trofeë losgeslaan. Hulle is Fairview, Dalewood en Cape Salut. Van links is John Truter (Fairview), Chris Lourens (Fairview), Petrina Visser (Dalewood Fromage), Rob Visser (Dalewood Fromage), Eddie Harris (Cape Salut) and Vernon Manuel (Fairview).

Concern over proposal for Paarl Mountain

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Anne Kruger

WATER treatment works for Paarl, to supplement the current supply from the Wemmershoek Dam, are likely to be erected on Paarl Mountain at a cost of about R10 million, but conservationists are opposed to the project.

A draft scoping report to ascertain whether a full impact assessment of the project is required, indicates that the best location for water treatment works to improve the water supply for Paarl, would be at Pienaarskamp on Paarl Mountain.

The high location is proposed to improve the quality of the water supply and pressure, especially in the higher lying residential areas.

The treatment works will purify the water from the Bethel and Nantes Dams on Paarl Mountain, which is supplemented by water pumped from the Berg River.

About 8% of Paarl receives its water from this source. The water is corrosive and turbid and needs to be filtered, according to the report.

The project has been proposed due to the growing population of Paarl and the high cost of purchasing Wemmershoek Dam water from the Cape Town City Council.

The proposed plant would have a capacity of 8 million litres per day and will be erected next to Jan Phillips Drive, at the turn-off to the Paarl Mountain Reserve.

It could possibly later be expanded to provide 15 million litres per day.

The building is envisaged as a new 'gateway' structure to the nature reserve, stengthening the existing 'sense of place'.

However visual considerations play an important role in the ultimate location, layout, usage, architectural design and finish.

According to the draft scoping report of consulting engineers Ninham Shand, the building must blend into and complement the surrounding landscape, rather than attempting to 'hide' the proposed structure.

Sensitive site planning, landscape and architectural design will be required to mitigate the visual impact of the large building of 650 square metres and five to six metres high.

The design proposed is a curved roof covered with copper sheeting which will discolour with age to blend in with the indigenous fynbos vegetation.

The building will be partially cut into the existing slope to diminish its considerable visual impact, according to the report.

It could also provide security, parking, toilets and educational information for tourists, thus serving as a gateway structure to the reserve adding a "sense of arrival".

Two drying ponds with a physical footprint of 1800 square metres are also required, but the existing ponds located downstream at Blake Street could be used, according to the consultants.

Alternative sites for the construction of the plant and treatment dams are the northern section of the Zanddrift sportsfields or vacant land between the Dal Josaphat railway station and the sewerage works (near the Long Street bridge).

However, Paarl Mountain is the preferred site due to the need for improved water pressure in the higher residential areas.

At a public meeting, members of the public expressed their alarm at the plans to build the large building on Paarl Mountain, which is a declared heritage site.

The Drakenstein Heritage Foundation has called on the Department to withhold permission for the project and to appoint an independent organisation to compile a report after consideration of all reasonable alternatives.

"In our opinion the current report is a biased attempt to justify one site, instead of informing decisionmakers of the options," says Len Raymond of the Heritage Foundation.

"The report discounts all other options in favour of Paarl Mountain, but does not take into account the cost of infrastructure or upgrading and maintaining Jan Phillips Mountain Drive, which will carry heavy traffic during construction.

"There is also no mention of the cost of necessary mitigating efforts such as landscaping to lower the visual impact nor is there any indication as to the geotechnical feasibility of sinking the building.

"The effect of the proposal cannot be judged because no design has been presented and no detailed elevations are available.

"The impact of the building will be severe and extremely detrimental and the lighting at night will also be extremely intrusive, for which no mitigation is suggested."

Should the Drakenstein Municipal Council wish to proceed with the project, the final scoping report and a letter motivating the choice of location will be submitted to the Department of Environmental Affairs for approval, after which a period of 30 days will be allowed for appeal.

Alternatively, the Department might call for a full environmental impact assessment of the project.

THE Glenwood Chardonnay 2003 convinced the panel of international and local judges of its quality by winning the awards for Best White Wine and Best White Wine from a Boutique Winery at the Swiss International Air Lines Wine Awards last week.

The Best Red Wine was the Glen Carlou Grand Classique 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot, which has already won several local awards.

Allée Bleue Shiraz 2002 was the proud winner of the Best Kept Secret award.

Glenwood winemaker DP Burger was thrilled with the result.

"The Chardonnay is a stunning wine that was made in the vineyard", he said at the Awards Ceremony. "When I picked the grape I knew it would be a great wine".

According to Robert Joseph, President of the Swiss International Air Lines Wine Awards, there were more and better entries in this year's competition.

Joseph believed that there was greater variety across a wide range of styles, which shows that winemakers are exploring new ways of interpreting the vines in their region.

All the winning wines will be paired with the five-course gourmet dinner at the Gourmet Signature Banquet on 22 May, which is the finale to this year's Gourmet Festival.

All wines will be available for tasting at the Good Food & Wine Show at the Cape Town Convention Centre from 20 to 23 May.

A PROJECT to investigate the potential for abstracting groundwater from a deep-lying geological structure known as the Table Mountain Group (TMG) Aquifer Alliance, has been launched.

A public meeting to discuss the proposed drilling sites in the Boland mountains will be held in the Huguenot Community Hall in Paarl on Wednesday evening 5 May from 18:30 to 20:00.

The long term aim of the five year project is to establish the environmental, technical and financial feasability of augmenting Cape Town's water supplies with groundwater abstracted from the Table Mountain Group Aquifer.

The project is one of the water supply strategies recommended by the City's Integrated Water Resource Planning and Cape Metropolitan Area Bulk Water Supply Studies undertaken in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

The area being investigated lies between Tulbagh en Kleinmond where the Aquifer occurs between depths of 200m and 1 000m below the surface.

The project has reached the stage where a number of exploratory boreholes are to be sunk to determine groundwater quantities and quality.

The drilling programme is to be confined to about ten target areas selected through rigorous hydrogeological screening.

No groundwater will be abstracted for bulk supply during the exploratory drilling fase.

This groundwater exploration requires authorisation in terms of the Environmental Conservation Act.

Only surface (above ground) impacts will be considered during this application, as no water will be abstracted.

Persons wishing to be identified as interested and affected parties can contribute to the environmental scoping process for the feasibility study and pilot project. Further information can be found on the internet at

www.tmg-aquifer.co.za.

To register as an affected party, send your contact details to Charl de Villiers or Penelope Jones of Ninham Shand Consulting services, fax 424-5588 or enviro@shands.co.za.

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