In March, the council announced it would include about $500,000 in its 2017-18 annual plan for the permanent chlorination of water supplies in Arrowtown, Glenorchy, Arthurs Point, Luggate and Lake Hawea.
Water supplies in Queenstown and Wanaka are already chlorinated.
Dozens of submissions against the proposal were made yesterday by residents of those communities and hundreds of people had also signed anti-chlorination petitions. Some of those residents took their opportunity to take their concerns to the councillors directly at the hearing on the submissions to the annual plan in Wanaka yesterday.
Some submitters held back tears while putting their case to councillors on why their water supplies should not be permanently chlorinated.
Luggate resident Cec Anderson asked why the council was not presenting and investigating alternatives to chlorine.
During an emotional submission, Mrs Anderson told councillors how she and other residents had gone door to door in the town and collected more than 200 signatures against chlorination. Lake Hawea resident Pip Harker sang anti-chlorination songs during her submission. Once her submission had finished, Ms Harker received an ovation from both the councillors and other residents waiting to make a submission.
Hawea Community Association representative Don Robertson said the association wanted the council to defer any decision on the chlorination of Lake Hawea’s water supply for at least a year, so the water management system in the town could be better investigated. Mayor Jim Boult assured each submitter the council was listening to their concerns and no decision had been made on permanent chlorination. Councillors and council staff were tasked with making drinking water safe for all residents in the Queenstown Lakes district and chlorination was one way to do that, Mr Boult said.
"It’s clear people are very passionate about this issue and we take each submission on board and we take them very seriously.
"But there’s a lot of liability on the council and councillors if something goes wrong in those water supplies."
