A Queenstown councillor is speaking out about what she says are plans to use emergency powers to discharge treated wastewater into the Shotover River.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council made the announcement to councillors on Thursday in a workshop behind closed doors —media weren’t invited.
But councillor Niki Gladding is so concerned she has decided to blow the whistle.
“I was stunned, it’s not something that you hear every day.”
The wastewater plant has been a problem for Queenstown’s council in recent years.
It has been slapped with infringement and abatement notices by the Otago Regional Council and there was an ongoing Environment Court attention on the facility.
In the public excluded workshop, Gladding said councillors were informed about longstanding issues with the performance of the disposal field — where treated wastewater ended up after going through numerous treatment processes.
Now, Gladding claimed the council wanted to use emergency powers under Sections 330 and 330A of the Resource Management Act to discharge treated effluent.
“[The council] cited three potential emergencies. One, an amenity emergency; two, a health emergency; and three, a bird strike aviation-related emergency because of all the birds that are attracted to the ponded water.”
The water treatment ponds were located below Queenstown Airport and alongside the Shotover River. That water immediately flowed into the nearby Kawarau River.
Queenstown Airport told 1News in a statement, “ponding water is attractive to birds, so leads to an increased risk. The risk associated with the ponding at the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant has been highlighted to Queenstown Lakes District Council, as the owner of the treatment plant.”
Gladding said, “if there was an emergency, they should have told everybody as soon as they decided it was an emergency”.
She was worried the council might misuse the emergency powers and claimed the plan was to pump12,000 cubic metres of treated wastewater into the river each day.
“I think what we need to do is just pause,” Gladding said. “There’s different ways to deal with it.”
She suggested more consultation with public and community groups, nets for the ponds to keep birds out, or even a cull.
“If we look at those other ways to deal with it and they prove impossible then absolutely Ssection 330 [of the RMA] may be appropriate. But we need to let local runaka, we need to let councils downstream know. People need to know… and we make an informed decision.”
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has put aside $77m for a long-term solution and has assured the community the wastewater plant remained effective.
The council’s property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said, in a statement issued late on Friday, the facility “continues to produce highly treated water at the end of multiple processes which are all working well”.
“The plant’s performance is monitored daily, and results from both onsite monitoring and external laboratory tests demonstrate that the treatment standard is consistent with the plant’s resource consent conditions.
“The disposal field is separate to the treatment plant and is not relied on as part of the wastewater treatment process. This means that water flowing into the disposal field is treated to a standard appropriate for the downstream receiving environment, in this case the Shotover and Kawarau rivers.
“The public may see additional activity in and around the plant, including the wider delta area, as we continue our investigations..”
1News put further questions to the Queenstown Lakes District Council today about the claims made by Gladding, but was told no-one was available for an interview until an announcement due on Wednesday next week.
It is, however, a long weekend in the region due to Otago Anniversary Day on Monday.
Gladding told 1News: “I’m concerned… I feel it’s sneaky, i feel like we’re finding a way to address a number of issues here and that’s not the way you use that section of the act.”
1News also contacted local iwi who did not want to comment until more information was revealed on Wednesday.
Comment has also been requested from the Otago Regional Council.
