The Central Otago District Council should "take a leaf out of Wanaka's book" and consider spreading its sewage sludge on land in the district, the Vincent Community Board heard yesterday.
Board member Graeme Bell said spending $120,000 to dump the sludge at the Victoria Flats landfill, or carting it to Dunedin when it was too wet for the landfill was "just a joke".
"We should be taking a leaf out of Wanaka's book and spreading it on land.
There's land I can think of, and plenty of gullies," he said.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) applied to the Central Otago council in May to store and discharge sewage sludge from the Wanaka wastewater treatment plant on a Tarras farm.
Once a year it would be applied to paddocks within the farm property.
The application attracted 69 submissions, 65 of them against the proposal, and in June the QLDC postponed the matter while it sought legal advice.
Mr Bell said instead of spending a lot of money in dealing with and transporting sludge, the Central Otago council could also examine "recycling".
Central Otago District Council chief executive Phil Melhopt said all options for wastewater treatment were being studied.
