A "substantial" amount of money is being withheld from the contractor of Project Pure, as the Queenstown Lakes District Council tries to resolve odour issues at the troublesome Wanaka wastewater and sewage facility.
Yesterday, QLDC water operations manager Gerry Essenberg told the Wanaka Community Board the contractor's payment was being withheld, while the council waited for odour issues to be resolved.
The $21 million Project Pure wastewater treatment plant, near the Wanaka Airport, has been plagued by odour issues and beset by complaints from its neighbours during the past few months.
Mr Essenberg told community board members two sets of odour testing had been recently completed at the plant.
The testing had been conducted "in-house" by QLDC staff and by an external agency, he said.
The results had highlighted mainly "minor issues regarding odour complaints", although there was also the potential for some "major problems" to develop in the future, Mr Essenberg said.
"The problem is we are unsure where exactly the odour is coming from within the plant," After being questioned by Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor John Wilson, Mr Essenberg said the amount of money being kept from contractor United Group Ltd was "substantial".
