The Central Otago District Council has been granted long-term resource consents by the Otago Regional Council to discharge treated wastewater into the Kawarau arm of Lake Dunstan, contaminants to air and sludge (biosolids) to land from the Cromwell and Bannockburn wastewater treatment plants for a term of 35 years.
A consent hearing was held in December and regional councillor Bryan Scott told the district council it was ''time to deliver'', without further delays. The regional council said although an interim consent was granted in 2012 to continue to discharge wastewater into the lake, no further short-term consents would be approved.
Dye-testing of an effluent plume in the lake that year highlighted an unacceptable risk to the environment and public health and the district council was forced to find a long-term solution to the problem.
''It's good to get these long-term consents and now we can go forward with our plans and begin the work, '' Central Otago deputy mayor and Cromwell Community Board chairman Neil Gillespie said yesterday.
''We know what the end result has to be.''
''This is the single most important infrastructure project that Cromwell has seen since the redevelopment of Cromwell associated with the Clyde Dam and it will ensure that Cromwell is able to accommodate future growth and development in a sustainable manner.''
Cromwell was the fastest growing ward in the district and the wastewater plant, built about 36 years ago, struggled to perform to modern standards, Cr Gillespie told the hearing in December. Two main options for the wastewater upgrade had been considered by the council - one costing $16.7 million and one costing about $9 million. The latter, a staged approach that dealt with public health concerns first and then environmental objectives further down the track, was the favoured option.
It would add $253 to each Cromwell ratepayer's annual wastewater rate from 2017. District council capital works programme manager Peter Greenwood said the conditions of the long-term consents aligned with that option.
The council was ''pleased to reach this milestone after a number of years of investigations and consultation'' into long-term wastewater treatment solutions, he said. The works programme would begin with a start of an E. coli monitoring programme in the Kawarau arm of the lake next month and construction of a new wastewater plant would begin in 2016.
