Theelen, Lewers and Mooney – “clean effluent” position disproved by new test results
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** Update. Mr Mooney’s office has been in touch to say that he disagrees with Crux equating his recent actions (including the video interview referenced below) with him agreeing with or accepting QLDC’s interpretation of the events surrounding the current sewage crisis.
Please see our coverage of his statement here.
Test results taken by Crux on Monday March 31 show that claims made by both QLDC and local MP Joseph Mooney that the new “emergency” effluent discharges are within resource consent limits are not true.
We took multiple samples at 9.20 am on March 31st from the new “emergency” channel that connects the QLDC’s Shotover sewage plant UV building to the Shotover River and at 9.30 am from the illegal discharge pipe that drains the disposal field to the Kawarau River.
The samples were taken direct from both effluent streams and not from any nearby ponding or ditch water.
New channel water test sample site - 9.20 am March 31st.
Disposal field discharge pipe test sample site - 9.30 am March 31st
The QLDC’s ORC resource consent limit is 260 colony forming units (CFU’s) per 100 millilitres.
Auckland beaches get cleared at 500 – 550 CFU’s.
The new emergency channel produced a reading of 570 CFU’s per 100 Millilitres, more than double the resource consent limit.
The illegal discharge pipe that drains the blocked disposal filed produced a reading of 530 CFU’s.
These are direct screen grabs from the Eurofins test results – new channel at the top and discharge pipe at the bottom.
The tests were conducted under controlled conditions by the Invercargill laboratory of Eurofins. Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company and claims to be the world leader in food, environmental, and pharmaceutical products testing.
Here's a table from LAWA on the risks linked to different e coli levels.
Crux also noted today (April 2) that even though the disposal field was emptying due to effluent being diverted, the resident birds at the centre of the “emergency” have decided that there is no reason to move elsewhere. If anything, the bird numbers have increased between Monday and Wednesday this week.
Resident birds - even with lower water levels in the disposal field
After months of silence local MP Joseph Mooney has taken a high profile on the “clean effluent” message even carrying out an amateur video interview with QLDC’s infrastructure manager Simon Mason that included multiple affirmations of only “clean highly treated effluent” being discharged into the Shotover River.
QLDC's Simon Mason and Joseph Mooney co-affirmed the "clean water" claim in this Facebook video post earlier this week.
In a media interview yesterday (April 1) Mayor Glyn Lewers doubled down on the clean effluent message and said that the sewage plant was within consented discharge standards. He also denied that his comms team had not been truthful in their denials of an ongoing and serious problem since November 2024.
Mr Mooney also posted two comments on Facebook that he then subsequently deleted.
Council CEO Mike Theelen accused Crux in a letter dated February 17, 2025 of “showing scant regard for the truth” in our reporting of the sewage crisis and threatened to “cease engagement” with Crux as we were upsetting his communications team.
The QLDC communications team has been telling Crux since November 2024 that there was no ongoing breach of effluent consent or safety limits, accusing us of inflammatory and misleading reporting. We now know via the ORC’s sworn affidavits to the Environment Court that the QLDC comms team were not correct in making these accusations.
Crux has approached Mayor Lewers, CEO Theelen and MP Joseph Mooney for their comments on today’s effluent quality results.
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