An Environment Court enforcement order has been placed on the Queenstown Lakes District Council for a range of issues relating to its Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The Otago Regional Council welcomed the decision yesterday and said it paved the way to begin a plan of action so the QLDC could meet its consent obligations and achieve compliance against the court’s orders.

The ORC sought an enforcement order on January 23, for issues at the treatment plant, following two abatement notices and 10 infringement notices - dating back to 2021.

“The decision and enforcement orders give a clear indication of what’s required to operate, remedy and upgrade the wastewater plant, while maintaining transparency with ongoing monitoring of these processes,” chief executive Richard Saunders said.

The decision outlined seven pages of separate enforcement orders, including upgrades, contingency measures, timeframes and milestones to be met.

The enforcement orders covered off operations and management manual, staff training, sampling and monitoring, repairs and improvements to the wastewater plant, upgrades to the plant and a new disposal field solution; the latter requiring a consent application be made for a new disposal system by May 2026, which must be implemented by December 2030.

Richard said that the ORC continued to closely monitor the Shotover treatment plant site and continued to undertake its regulatory role.

The Environment Court’s decision was separate to QLDC making an emergency/retrospective consent application for earlier works at the Shotover site.

The emergency works enacted by QLDC were to bypass the problematic (soak) disposal field and to discharge treated wastewater directly into the Shotover river.

ORC was still assessing the application and further updates including a date for notification would be provided on the ORC website.