Solar sewage drying plant interest

Approval of a Fulton Hogan plan to build a solar ''glasshouse'' to dry Wanaka's sewage sludge could lead to such plants becoming more common in New Zealand.

At the start of a resource consent hearing in Wanaka yesterday, Fulton Hogan regional manager central Alan Peacock outlined the company's current involvement in waste treatment facilities, saying none had a solar drying plant ''at this stage''.

The Otago Daily Times was told at the hearing that the eyes of local authorities and others involved in waste management were on the company's application.

Fulton Hogan is seeking consent to set up a WendeWolf solar drying plant on land it owns near Luggate to dry sludge ''cake'' trucked 7km from the Queenstown Lakes District Council's Project Pure waste system next to Wanaka Airport.

The company at present trucks the 950 tonnes of sludge Wanaka produces each year 70km to the Victoria Flats landfill in the Gibbston valley.

Liquitek Pty Ltd business development manager Derek de Waal said 124 of the WendeWolf plants were in use, mainly in Australia and Europe.

Fulton Hogan's application to the Otago Regional Council and the Queenstown Lakes District Council is being heard by independent commissioners Kevin Rolfe, David Whitney and John Lumsden.

The sludge issue has been hotly debated in Luggate over the past year or so. However, no members of the public were present to hear the company's submissions yesterday.

Counsel for Fulton Hogan Phil Page told the hearing the company's application was ''in the public good''.

''What it does is relieve the people of Wanaka from dealing with one of the intractable but largely invisible problems of any urban settlement: how to deal with sludge produced from sewage treatment.''

 

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