The regional council is dialling back its regular testing of the Shotover wastewater treatment plant despite E. coli levels spiking recently.
The results, which come from the Otago Regional Council’s own monitoring page, showed E. coli levels spiking above minimum acceptable standards about July 28, while there have also been breaches of compliance for suspended solids on at least three occasions in the past month.
From August 18, instead of testing weekly and having weekly site visits, the ORC will shift to monthly testing and visits, although there will still be weekly water testing of the Kawarau River downstream of the treatment plant site.
An ORC spokesman said in a media release this decision balanced the need to ensure a robust monitoring programme which provided assurance to the people of Queenstown and downstream from the discharge, "with the need to ensure prudent financial management, where appropriate monitoring and oversight is already in place".
The spokesman said it had confidence in Queenstown’s own monitoring of the site, as ORC would audit it for any discrepancies or breaches.
"With the enforcement order in place, as well as the monitoring required under the resource consent, Queenstown are now required to undertake a wide range of monitoring and supply these results to ORC."
The Shotover wastewater plant has been beset with compliance problems for several years.
In January, the regional council sought an enforcement order from the Environment Court to address current compliance issues at the treatment plant, which followed the issuing of two abatement notices and 10 infringement notices.
On June 9, the Environment Court approved the application for an enforcement order, which requires the Queenstown Lakes District Council to undertake several actions aimed at achieving compliance on site — most of them to do with frequent monitoring of the water quality.
All test results will continue to be made public.
The ORC declined to respond to a series of questions before yesterday’s deadline.
