QLDC silent as 24/7 sewage overflow continues
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The Queenstown Lakes District Council is still denying the existence of a major sewage overflow into the Kawarau River - an overflow that has now been in progress for weeks or even months, 24/7 - and getting worse.
The overflow is from the dispersal field of the Shotover wastewater plant where former managers, workers, experts and consultants are contributing to a picture of serious systemic faults going back to 2018/2019.
Crux is still waiting for detailed replies from the Otago Regional Council and the QLDC, but new evidence is starting to suggest the problem is more serious than originally thought. Some experts now say the problem is not so much non-permeable compacted silt that stops the dispersal field from draining properly, but a build up and worsening blockage of solid human waste that should not technically get as far as the dispersal field.
Video shot just before noon today (November 25) showed the flow and ponding from the sewage overflow towards the Kawarau river was worse than during two visits last week.
One expert has told Crux today that the same or similar problem may be affecting Wānaka's Project Pure treatment plant near Wānaka airport.
It's far from clear what the QLDC can do to remedy the problem, but it is likely to cost a lot more than the budgeted $77 million that was not due to be spent until 2027.
Crux has learned that the problems started just 18 months from when the dispersal field was commissioned when council engineers dug an emergency drainage channel into reserve land to the south of the dispersal field. The work was not consented and the channel was then as a result filled in again following instructions from the ORC.
We've been told by multiple sources that the sewage overflow has been entering both the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers for years with the full knowledge of senior council managers.
QLDC is still denying this even though the rivers are the only possible destination for the millions of litres of sewage overflow we have video of from the past two weeks.
Previous ORC tests, linked to two abatement notices and six infringement notices, confirm the level of toxic effluent that has been entering the Kawarau River.
Most alarming of all is the ORC 2023 description of overflowed effluent flowing “like a river” away from the dispersal field and their analysis of water from the Kawarau River (downstream from where the effluent was entering the river) showing “extremely high levels of Escherichia coli (E Coli) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS).” (See ORC chart above)
This is the source of the overflow - at the southern end of the dispersal field. This water is supposed to drain into the land - not flow over it into local rivers. The treatment process does not work due to the extensive presence of solid waste.
One source told Crux today of their horror at discovering more than two years ago that the water cells at the heart of the dispersal field were full of green organic slime and solid human waste. Months and years of temporary channels, ponds, 3 metre high banks and external trucking of waste have failed to prevent the problem getting worse.
The dispersal field is supposed to be a gravel bed - but now council contractors have had to contain excess waste water within a new 3 metre high earth barrier - but still it overflows.
Solid waste is supposed to get pumped back to the three main settling ponds from the UV facility and not even enter the dispersal field - but this has not been happening. The UV system sterilises organisms but can't handle solid waste. There's understood to be no physical filtration in the UV facility.
Crux saw pipe work in progress today at the UV building but there's been no update from QLDC.
Work today at the UV building at the Shotover waste treatment plant
We understand that local MP Joseph Mooney will be asking questions today.
The Environment Minister Penny Simmonds has told Crux that getting the problem sorted is the job of the regulator - the Otago Regional Council.
Crux did receive two interim statements from QLDC and ORC this afternoon.
"We await ORC’s latest test results and have nothing further to add to our previous responses."
QLDC media spokesperson.
"ORC’s Compliance Manager Carlo Bell says we’re expecting the test results possibly back by the end of the week from the lab, before any compliance action can then be considered. As the investigation is still live, we are unable to comment further."
ORC.
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