Protesters picket in bid to stop Queenstown council sewage plan

Tess Brunton, Otago/Southland reporter
tess.brunton@rnz.co.nz

Protesters picketed a Queenstown wastewater plant as they called on the council to scrap plans to discharge treated sewage into a local river.

Last week Queenstown Lakes District councillors were briefed behind closed doors about dumping more than 12,000 cubic metres of treated effluent into the Shotover River.

Councillor Nikki Gladding revealed the confidential plan, accusing the council of secrecy.

The council is confident water quality won't be impacted.

The protest near the plant started hours before the council was due to go public with the plan.

Their signs included 'Toot not to Pollute' and 'Save Our Rivers', prompting a cacophony of honks from drivers.

 

One local resident said the council should be ashamed of lack of transparency as he only found out about the plan when the whisteblower councillor spoke out.

He said he wanted to see councillors swim in the river if they believed the dumping of effluent wouldn't impact river quality.

Queenstown Lakes District Council property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said the effluent would be highly treated and the council was confident water quality would not be impacted.

"We're going to meet bathing water standards beyond the mixing zone which is a pretty standard measure.

"We're not talking about contaminating the water."

 

The council was expected to use emergency powers under the Resource Management Act to start discharging within days.

Avery said this would allow them to act immediately and then apply for retrospective consent.

It would translate to about 12,000 cubic metres of treated wastewater being discharged directly into the river each day, but this would vary, he said.

Council infrastructure operations manager Simon Mason they needed to act because the disposal field used to discharge treated wastewater into the ground was already discharging into the river.

He also raised concerns that ponding water was attracting water fowl and increasing the risk of bird strike to nearby aviation.

Issues with the field used to discharge wastewater into the ground became apparent in 2021 and the council had tried to fix the problem, he said.

But it had degraded to the extent that it was deemed not fit for purpose since about the middle of last year.

They investigated alternatives including expanding the field, bird netting and exploring ways to remediating it, but he said they concluded that the discharge option was the most appropriate strategy until they could develop a long term solution.

That solution could be five years away using money set aside in the council's long term plan.

 

The protesters moved to line the road entering the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Protesters outside the plant chanted "QLDC, we don't need your secrecy."

A decision on the plan is expected within days.