Reports on the status of a Wanaka landfill will be publicly released this week when Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Duncan Field has read and taken advice on them.
The reports cover land ownership and resource consent compliance.
"The landfill tenure is confused. There was supposed to be a subdivision and there is a chain of transactions. An independent commissioner will make a decision in the next few days,'' Mr Field said.
The landfill on Riverbank Rd has attracted complaints from neighbours concerned about its contents and whether it has the potential to contaminate bore water.
Jo Dippie and Angus Gordon want landfill operations to cease until the QLDC and the Otago Regional Council sort out their issues with Wanaka Landfill directors Robert Duncan and Phil Dunstan.
Mr Field said the QLDC could not order the company to cease activities because the council was not in a position to issue a compliance warrant.
"We don't know what authorities they have got,'' he said.
Ms Dippie has offered to buy the landfill land because the councils have not been able to settle the chain of transactions between the councils and Wanaka Landfill Ltd.
Mr Field said the council could not accept Ms Dippie's offer because the contracts had been signed in 1999, money had been paid over and possession had been given.
The title deeds are not yet in the QLDC's name but he hoped for a settlement between the three parties soon. The stumbling block was the incomplete subdivision of Otago Regional
Council land near the Cardrona River, Mr Field said. He had spoken to the ORC and the ORC had a "very clear view'' about what was allowed to go into the landfill, with particular concerns resting on liquid waste from concrete trucks.
Until he had considered the reports, Mr Field could not explain why there had been delays in settling the transactions and determining what activities could take place.
