After an investigation lasting more than a year, the ORC applied last week to the Environment Court for an enforcement order against the Queenstown Lakes District Council over its operation of the treatment plant.
The ORC application, a 12-page document provided yesterday by the Ministry of Justice, showed the ORC’s legal counsel asking for more than two dozen steps to be taken by the QLDC at its treatment plant.
Among them was the ORC asking for the QLDC to have in place a new "long-term solution" for the plant’s inadequate disposal field by the end of next year.
Resource consent applications for the plant’s new disposal system for treated wastewater should be lodged by the end of this year, the ORC said.
Weekly sampling of wastewater after UV treatment should be in place — and in the event of treated samples showing higher levels of contamination than allowed, the sampling should happen daily for the following three weeks, it said.
The QLDC should install a groundwater monitoring bore between the plant’s disposal field and the Shotover River as required by its resource consent, the ORC said.
There should be annual "biological monitoring", including for ecosystem health during peak summer temperatures.
There should also be water quality monitoring in the Shotover River both upstream of the treatment plant and in the river channel next to the disposal field.
The operations and maintenance manual for the plant needed to be amended, the ORC said.
The ORC wanted to see "specific operating procedures" about how the operator assessed whether the plant was exceeding its capacity.
There needed to be a plan in place in the event of "critical equipment" failure.
The QLDC should also "immediately repair and maintain" the conveyors that moved the "dewatered" sludge produced at the plant.
By the end of this year, the QLDC needed to construct a "calamity pond" where wastewater could be diverted if treatment was not working.
Again, by the end of this year, the QLDC should repurpose one of three oxidation ponds at the site to provide treated wastewater storage so it could hold treated wastewater and avoid flooding its disposal field.
The wall the QLDC constructed around the disposal field should be improved so as to avoid the chance of uncontrolled overflows.
The QLDC should further immediately apply for the necessary consents for that wall, the ORC said.
And the QLDC should pay the ORC’s costs related to the court proceedings, it said.
The ORC said the orders were sought because the plant’s disposal field was failing, there were adverse effects on the environment and there was the risk of "more significant adverse effects".
"Improvements to the [treatment plant] and its operation are required to avoid and/or mitigate the adverse effects on the environment," the application said.
Meanwhile, official information provided to the Otago Daily Times by the ORC showed at the start of October the QLDC asked for "a further three-month extension" for compliance with an abatement notice issued by the ORC in May 2021.
The ORC’s compliance team granted a one-month extension, the correspondence provided shows.
The enforcement order application follows the ORC issuing two abatement notices and 10 infringement notices, including five infringement notices this month alone for issues at the plant late last year.
