The ongoing investigation into what made Gore’s tap water undrinkable in July is unlikely to point the finger at one bad actor, a council manager says.
July’s rapid rise of nitrates in Gore’s water, and their staying power, was concerning and might have been caused by multiple changes in land use over time, he said.
These comments were made during a "nitrate update" at a Gore District Council meeting last week by general manager of critical services Jason Domingan.
The water was declared undrinkable from July 18 to 22 when council testing revealed its nitrate level had spiked 0.1mg over the 11.3mg per litre national limit.
Following this, Greenpeace defaced the town’s brown trout statue to look dead, blaming the dairy industry for the undrinkable water.
"Welcome to Gore, where dirty dairy wrecked the water," the altered welcome sign said.
Regional council Environment Southland has been charged with finding the source of the water contamination, but says it will take "some time".
In the meeting last week, Cr Andrew Fraser asked Mr Domingan if the chances of the investigation finding a clear answer were slim.
"I think yeah, probably, in terms of trying to point the finger at one thing, yes," Mr Domingan said.
In July, the nitrate level rose rapidly and, although still below the national limit, had remained elevated instead of dropping away again as it had in the past, he said.
That hold showed there were probably a number of contributing factors over time.
"This is potentially a bit of a longer lag that we’re seeing by, potentially, changes in land use over a period of time," he said.
Nitrates in the water was an issue being faced around the country, he said, pointing to similar problems in Canterbury.
The day after the meeting, Environment Canterbury declared a "nitrate emergency" in its district.
The declaration came after Environment Canterbury’s recent annual groundwater survey found both E. coli and nitrate concentrations were increasing.
Mr Domingan said there was not going to be a quick resolution to what happened in Gore, and it was going to keep working with the regional council to address the situation.
The meeting heard the cost of remedying the nitrate spike was taken out of the 2025-26 Three Waters budget.
District council Three Waters operations manager Aaron Green said because it was the beginning of the financial year, it was hard to tell how that cost would add up.
"It’s a possibility that we will have an overrun at the end of the financial year — we'll keep the council informed on that," he said.
Cr Neville Phillips congratulated staff for their crisis response, a sentiment Gore District Mayor Ben Bell echoed.
