Gore District Council staff are finalising a resource consent which will begin a new chapter in how Gore and Mataura wastewater is treated.
The district council’s previous Environment Southland consents, which allowed the discharge of water into the Mataura River, have expired.
Hokonui runanga no longer supports water going directly to the river and a technical working group has been investigating land-disposal options since 2021.
It is estimated the upgrades to the wastewater disposal system for the two towns will cost between $55 million and $77m.
A report written by council project engineer Terry Trotter detailing progress of the project was tabled at the assets and infrastructure committee meeting last week.
Speaking to the report, Three Waters contractor Matt Bayliss said a draft consent application had been provided to the runanga in June so staff could complete the cultural impact assessment section.
He had heard back from staff who did not appear to have any concerns about the proposal, he said.
The consent application would be submitted to Environment Southland within the next week, he said.
During the discussion of the report, committee chairman John Gardyne said he noticed in the budget there was $300,000 set aside to pay for negotiations with Environment Southland.
"Where does that money go [and] what will it be used for?"
Mr Bayliss said it was likely given the significance of the project Environment Southland staff might require some technical reviews of the application.
"Environment Southland will engage technical reviewers ... but then pass the cost back on to us as the applicant."
Councillor Paul McPhail asked what the review would entail.
Mr Bayliss said he expected the review would find out if what the council proposed to do was achievable.
Councillor Neville Phillips said he was "astounded by the cost".
Already $1.2m had been spent, he said.
"Holy heck — poor ratepayers."
Cr Gardyne said the cost could be as high as $1.5m before work began.
Gore District Mayor Ben Bell asked what would be the process followed after the consent was granted.
Mr Bayliss said when the consent was granted it would likely have dates by which aspects of the upgrade would need to be achieved.
Mr Bell also wanted to know if any review of the consent would consider the performance of other wetland projects throughout the country.
Mr Bayliss said those could be considered.
However, "addressing cultural concerns" was the main reason why a wetland solution was being considered for the district.
"There is a lot of uncertainty around the level of treatment the wetlands would provide from an ecological point of view but that’s why we’ve proposed those pilot studies."
How effective a wetland was depended on factors including its design, vegetation growing in it and the quality of water entering it, he said.
