The future of every Central Otago town’s wastewater solutions will soon be back in the hands of the community rather than stakeholders.

Central Otago District Council group manager - three waters Julie Muir told council in Ranfurly yesterday that new draft waste water environmental standards released by Taumata Arowai will drastically change the consent requirements for urban discharges.

The standards will take precedence over national directions and plans such as the draft Land and Water Regional Plan, and meant towns such as Omakau would have the option of a lower cost plant discharging to the Manuherikia River or the more expensive land disposal.

“There is the challenge at the moment, a huge standoff where stakeholder groups want higher environmental standards - discharging to land - whereas communities are saying ‘we can’t pay for this.’”

Cr Tracy Paterson, also a Matakanui farmer, asked how the new standards would interact with the Resource Management Act (RMA) for the community.

Julie believed there would be an amendment made to the RMA and that was backed by group manager of planning and infrastructure Louise van der Voort who said when there was talk around scrapping the RMA altogether, it was “all a bit up in the air.”

Julie admitted the process of the new standards taking precedence over a National Policy Statement was a bit unusual. 

But it did mean there were more opportunities for local communities to influence the solution through the local government consultation process.

Cr Martin McPherson said he was concerned what that meant for Alexandra in 10 years, and Cr Paterson agreed, with regard to discharges into the Manuherikia River, “should we not be trying to avoid that?”

Julie started her presentation to council saying that while she appreciated there would be strong views within the community on the environmental aspect, “we don’t feel we are qualified to make those comments on this.”

She said it was a major piece of work “that is really going to get quite complicated.”

“So for Omakau, we’ll go back to the drawing board because the rules have changed, the whole playing field has changed."

But the good news was the consenting period would increase to 35 years, “when you are investing a lot of money into infrastructure you do want to have some certainty that what you are building will be fit for the future, and not change again in six years time,” she said.

Council would be making a submission on the new draft standards on April 16 before going out for consultation before being implemented in August 2025.

Have a story to share?

Contact [email protected]