Hearings for retrospective consents to allow the Shotover wastewater treatment plant to discharge treated wastewater directly into the Shotover River will take place in the Environment Court.
In a statement Otago Regional Council consents manager Alexandra King said the council had granted the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s request to move the process to the court in part because public notification would still go ahead.
Ms King also said the QLDC’s position on the consent applications was likely to be appealed and the referral to the court would save "considerable time and money".
Public notification of the applications would still proceed after the ORC had received the further information it requested from the QLDC, due by August 11, she said.
"It’s a pragmatic decision and this approach ensures security of the public notification process and the opportunity for public participation is based on having complete and accurate information," she said.
The QLDC began its "short-term solution" for its troubled treatment plant on March 31 — more than 100 days ago — and began discharging about 12,000cu m of treated wastewater a day into the river to bypass the plant’s failing disposal field as an emergency measure.
Shortly before the QLDC asked the ORC to move the hearings to the Environment Court, the ORC asked the QLDC for more information to support the claim the effects of its ongoing discharge into the river were less than minor.
Monitoring at some sites had detected "significantly high ammonia concentrations", the ORC said last month.
Yesterday’s statement noted after a more than year-long investigation of the Shotover site, the ORC applied to the Environment Court in February for an enforcement order to have the QLDC meet its consent conditions, particularly with respect to ponding that was happening at the treatment plant’s disposal field.
After mediation, an enforcement order was now in place.
The statement also noted that two abatement notices were in place and 10 infringements had been issued since the beginning of last year.
Five of those infringement notices were issued this year, and all those related to the alleged discharge of treated wastewater to land on the Shotover Delta whereby contaminants could enter the Shotover River and/or the Kawarau River, the statement said.
Ponding at the site, which was attracting birds, prompted the QLDC to begin its emergency discharge to the river due to aviation safety concerns from nearby Queenstown Airport.
The consent applications to be heard by the Environment Court are for retrospective consent for the ongoing emergency discharge and to divert the braided river to ensure the discharge is always going to running water.
