How QLDC councillors were tricked into believing a sewage whitewash

Analysis.

In what appears to have been a carefully stage-managed event, QLDC elected members were taken on a recent tour of the Shotover sewage plant.

It clearly worked because when we reported in mid February on the increasing accumulation of solid waste in the council's circular clarifier tank (main image above) we were attacked by both the council comms team, the CEO Mike Theelen and even the Deputy Mayor Quentin Smith for spreading "misinformation."

We even got a stern letter from QLDC CEO Mike Theelen accusing us of having "scant regard for the truth."

We've been matching up dates and it looks as though QLDC themselves have been economical with the truth in terms of keeping media and elected members informed of the true state of the Shotover plant.

We sent these three images to the council in mid February (February 14) asking for comment on the state of the circular clarifier tank:

Three days - and evidence of the Shotover clarifier tank becoming steadily blocked with solid waste

The council made this comment on the deterioration in the clarifier tank over just three days. This is definitely not what the councillors saw on their visit only a couple of weeks earlier.

"There is currently no issue with the performance of QLDC’s Shotover WWTP (excluding the disposal field as previously notified) and in fact it is performing well. The picture you referenced shows very normal clarifier operation. The small area highlighted of floating material (referred to in the industry as ‘scum’) is typical and the clarifier mechanism is designed to exclude that material from the settled water that is ultimately discharged from the tank."

"Please refer to the attached photo (published below) taken Wednesday afternoon that reflects the treated water quality. Furthermore, the operational team completed testing of the total suspended solids in the discharge from the clarifier on Wednesday and yesterday with results of 1.3 mg/l and 2mg/l respectively (the consent limit is set at a mean of 30mg/l, with a 95%ile of 50mg/l). We have also included the most recent test results from the laboratory (Eurofins), noting this is from a couple of weeks ago due to the turnaround times from the lab."

We pushed for a reply, based on our three photos (above) and this was what came back:

"Please refer to our earlier response: the clarifier is working normally and treatment processes at the plant are performing as expected. The sample of the treated water tested today returned a TSS result of 2 mg/l." Source QLDC Comms February 14, 2025.

The ORC was also pushed for a reply - this is what they said:

ORC Deputy Chief Executive, Amanda Vercoe (Mrs)

"We have no further comment, and reiterate that comment on the plant’s operation should be directed to SWTP owner-operator, QLDC."

Then yesterday (February 28th) we shot this video from a road above the sewage plant.

The clarifier was clearly 100% clogged with solid waste. We spoke with the chair and deputy chair (Gavin Bartlett and Niki Gladding) of the QLDC Infrastructure committee later that morning (February 28) and they agreed to ask some questions. We knew we would not get any meaningful response from the comms team.

Then Niki Gladding received a call back from Simon Mason, the council's main infrastructure manager under Tony Avery, and he revealed there had been a "crusting event" with the clarifier and the Otago Regional Council as regulator had been informed some days earlier under the resource management act requirements.

We then got this confirmation from the ORC:

"ORC were notified about floating solids on the clarifier last week. ORC staff are working to understand any risks to compliance associated with this. Questions about operational issues around the plant should be sent to QLDC. ORC staff have been on site this week and last week as part of the continued monitoring of the site. Samples were taken last week (Wed 19 Feb) and ORC is waiting for the results of the samples."

Note that the Otago Regional Council says they got the notification from QLDC last week - that means literally in the same time frame that we sent our three photos to QLDC/ORC and they said (repeated for clarity: "It would be useful to understand why you were of the opinion there was an issue with the facility. Given our data and observations from the plant, we are firmly of the view the claims made are baseless and inaccurate.")

We believe the two conflicting statements (one to Crux and one to the ORC) are likely to have been made around the same time between February 12 and February 14.

To be clear - while the QLDC was accusing Crux of "misinformation and "having scant regard for the truth" and they were telling us there was no problem with the Shotover clarifier tank while at the same time, likely on the same day, they were reporting a breakdown in the same clarifier tank to the regulator, the ORC.

Councillor Niki Gladding summed it up in a social media comment yesterday - "I'm furious."

We are wondering if the top team at the QLDC is somehow emboldened by the current events at the White House.