The Roxburgh Community Board has to change the way it deals with treated wastewater from the town and rather than discharging it into the Clutha, it has agreed to dispose of treated effluent on land.
"The consent for that [discharging into the river] expires on April 30, 2011, and the rules have changed since we put in oxidation ponds," Central Otago District Council development engineer Peter Morton told the board yesterday.
"The bar has been raised by the Otago Regional Council so we've been working on solutions for some time."
Roxburgh needed a "low-cost, low-tech" solution, he said.
The regional council now required discharge of treated wastewater to land unless land disposal was inappropriate for the site.
The board decided to seek consents for treated effluent to be discharged on land next to the existing oxidation ponds. The ponds will still be used in the upgraded system, but instead of discharging the treated wastewater into the river, it will go through a series of berms on the ground that filter it.
The extended site is part of the Roxburgh Plantation Reserve land, about 500m from the town. The land is dredge tailings, vested in the council as a local purpose reserve.
Several regional and district council consents will be needed before the work begins, including a discharge consent and designating the extended site for wastewater treatment and disposal.
The board will also need to seek permission from the Minister of Crown Lands to change the reserve status of the land.
All going well, with no appeals at any stage, the new wastewater system could be constructed by the end of next year.
"In the future, you'll be able to put your hands up and say Roxburgh's not contaminating the Clutha," council consulting engineer Paul Jacobson said about the improvements.
A groundwater monitoring bore 70m from the Teviot River and 70m from the Clutha would be used to sample the quality of the water.
Because the dredge tailings were pre-1900, the site was defined as an archaeological site and an archaeological assessment would have to be carried out before any work began, he said.
A figure of $200,000 was set aside in the long term council community plan for upgrading Roxburgh's wastewater system in the coming financial year.
