As the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) failing wastewater treatment plant is throttling development in the area, Willowridge Developments Ltd director Allan Dippie called an upcoming $80million project to address the issue the wrong option.
The QLDC announced this week it would be limiting new connections to the town’s outdated wastewater treatment plant after the facility failed to achieve nitrogen level requirements.
Mr Dippie, whose company is developing two of the largest plots in Hawea in Timsfield and Koreke Rise, said the council had chosen the wrong option.
‘‘We respect the council’s decision to proceed with the project, but in my view it’s not the best decision.’’
Mr Dippie said he warned the council 10 years ago about the potential and obvious growth at Lake Hawea and recommended a stand-alone scheme for the tiny township, which boasts about 2300 residents.
Instead, the QLDC has gone with an $80m spend on an upgraded system which ends near Wanaka and is due to be completed by 2027.
The council’s preferred solution means wastewater will have to travel over 20km and bypass two riverways.
The developers will in part pay for some of that infrastructure through development contributions of $42,208 per section at Lake Hawea.
While neither Mr Dippie’s development nor surrounding developments of Longview and Falcon Rise will be affected by the new council limitations on the current scheme, Mr Dippie said Hawea was becoming too big for wastewater to be pumped that far, past the Wanaka airport.
‘‘It’s a hugely expensive project to implement and a very expensive project to operate.
‘‘The project doesn’t provide for what Hawea will eventually look like, so it is sort of doomed from the start,’’ Mr Dippie said.
QLDC property and infrastructure general manager Tony Avery said the continued development in Hāwea would require an additional wastewater treatment plant in the future.
The Upper Clutha Wastewater Conveyance Scheme project was considered the preferred solution following a ‘‘robust multi-criteria analysis’’ of three shortlisted options, which included a new wastewater treatment plant in Hāwea.
‘‘The option to connect Hāwea’s wastewater network to Project Pure WWTP [wastewater treatment plant] provides the best balance of environmental, social, cost and resilience benefits to the area.
‘‘Furthermore, it can be implemented with the least consenting risk, and does not require land acquisition,’’ Mr Avery said.
Mr Dippie said the only positive was the new system would avoid the continuous trucking of wastewater from Hawea and its four new subdivisions to Ballantyne Rd in Wanaka - a system he labelled third world.
‘‘Over the years we tried to get the [stand-alone scheme] project back on the table many times and despite spiralling costs of the Project Pure option, which would have made an alternative solution a no-brainer, we just couldn’t get any traction.’’
He said he was concerned by the longevity of the new wastewater scheme for Wanaka.
‘‘The most concerning thing, however, is the project is putting almost all of the Upper Clutha’s eggs in one basket and that one basket has definitely not worked for Queenstown when you look at the present issues over there at the Shotover plant and the disastrous situation that is occurring.’’
The Otago Regional Council (ORC) has issued an abatement notice in relation to the QLDC plant’s compliance with nitrogen discharge limits.
The ORC abatement notice on the Hawea plant means until the upgrades to the council’s Project Pure water system are in place, new wastewater connections in Hawea will not be approved with the exception of vacant sections with an existing wastewater connection, developments with a valid resource granted, or those adding a second residential unit or a residential flat as a permitted activity.
