Otago regional councillor Tim Mepham said problems at the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) Shotover wastewater treatment plant were the result of "poor planning, rapid growth and limited funding available to QLDC".
"It has been a problem waiting to happen for years.
"The ORC is between a rock and a hard place in terms of reputational damage.
"They are either going to be seen to be heavy handed if they apply the letter of the law, compounding the problems facing QLDC, or irresponsible for seeking a collaborative approach and not immediately preventing the environmental damage caused by these disgusting discharges into our waterways."
QLDC and the ORC are at present in Environment Court mediation over issues at the treatment plant.
Nevertheless, problems with the plant’s disposal field has lead to ponding at the site and now nearby Queenstown Airport has raised the issue of bird strike if birds are attracted to the area.
To bypass the faulty disposal field, direct discharge of treated effluent into the Shotover River began this week, effectively resuming the operation before the disposal field was commissioned in 2019.
The QLDC must now seek retrospective consent from the ORC.
Cr Gary Kelliher said his concern was the cost "to the environment and the ratepayers".
"I am being continually assured that the discharge is of high-quality, so the environment is not at risk.
"As councillors we are being updated and told everything is in hand and before the courts and lots of testing is being done.
"But until I see the testing I’m sceptical as we were told the dispersal site only had treated water in it, but now are told its full of sludge, so something is wrong."
ORC chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson said the council took its role as regulator very seriously and remained committed to enforcing environmental regulations and ensuring compliance.
ORC staff had undertaken sampling from the discharge on Monday and were awaiting the results of those tests.
A decision on any action would be made by staff following receipt of the test results, Cr Robertson said.
"While ORC continues to undertake its regulatory functions including monitoring, and will provide updates through our staff, the onus remains on QLDC to be appropriately monitoring the S330 emergency discharge from the treatment plant.
"We are not responsible for the operation of the wastewater treatment plant.
"However, we can take action consistent with the enforcement powers contained within the Resource Management Act.
"We remain committed to ensuring that there is a good outcome for the environment, which includes compliance with any granted resource consents."
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers said the consent conditions issued by ORC required providing the ORC with test results every month.
It was not up to the QLDC to keep ORC councillors informed.
If Cr Kelliher had questions about the testing, he should ask his own organisation, Mr Lewers said.
There was "no sludge" in the disposal field and if testing was done correctly it would show that the water being discharged from the plant was meeting consent conditions.
Cr Mepham was "half right" and Queenstown’s ability to pay for infrastructure was a burden on ratepayers, Mr Lewers said.
"We take this very seriously.
"We’ve been put in a situation where there’s decisions [that have] been made way back in the past, but we’ve just got to deal with it.
"As one councillor said yesterday, it’s a decision between bad and worse and we’ve taken the bad, we’ve taken the lesser of the two.
"It’s not ideal. We get that. We understand that, but we’ll work through this as quickly as we possibly can."
