Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) said in a statement on Thursday it had received an abatement notice from the Otago Regional Council (ORC) because the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant failed to achieve its 12-month rolling mean for nitrogen levels in its treated wastewater discharged to an oxidation pond on site.
The abatement notice comes as the QLDC is already under scrutiny for troubles at its Shotover treatment plant which is at present discharging 12,000 cubic metres of treated wastewater directly into the Shotover River daily, bypassing the plant’s failing disposal field.
Otago regional councillor Michael Laws has railed against the state of the region’s wastewater treatment plants.
Cr Laws said it was Hāwea’s historic failures that led him and former regional councillor Ella Lawton to start pushing the ORC for more regular inspections and reporting of all wastewater treatment plants in the region.
"That [the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant] is failing to meet its consent standards is no surprise: the infrastructure of the QLDC is raggedy, at best.
"I am impatient for improvement."
Wastewater treatment plants in Otago continued to be the "region’s greatest environmental risk" — much worse than dairying or industrial discharges, he said.
"In the QLDC’s case, its rapid population growth and new developments exacerbates past under-investment.
"Going easy on [councils] is not the answer: ‘these are the consents, you signed up for them, fix it now’ is the only sane response."
The district council did not respond to an Otago Daily Times request for comment.
But in its statement, property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said while the breach and abatement notice were disappointing, environmental monitoring in the Hāwea River showed there were no adverse effects associated with the treatment plant’s elevated nitrogen levels.
"We’ve been aware of fluctuating nitrogen levels in the treated wastewater and have attempted to resolve them through upgrades to the facility’s wastewater treatment processes in the recent past, and while these changes have resulted in significant improvements, nitrogen remains above consented limits."
Due to its historic issues an $80 million plan was already in place to connect the township to Project Pure/Wānaka Wastewater Treatment Plant, the council said.
In 2019, RNZ reported the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant had been breaching its resource consent for seven years, polluting surrounding land with excess levels of nitrogen.
The ORC could not say this week what the potential environmental consequences might be as a result of the of the present issues at the plant.
