Things will start to get very real in Central Otago with regard to rates if the Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP) is notified at the end of October, Cr Gary Kelliher says.

Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan spoke out on Friday saying a total ban on water-based disposal of treated wastewater will make costs so exorbitant that requirements will become totally impossible for local authorities.

Federated Farmers led the charge last week saying the ORC had kept people in the dark with the costs of more than $110 million for Alexandra and Clyde, but Mayor Cadogan said it had actually been publicly available for some time.

The ORC has acknowledged receipt of a new letter from Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds seeking further information around costs involved with the proposed plan.

But ORC chair Gretchen Robertson said they hadn’t sought detailed information on the potential costs of land-based wastewater discharge, “as land-based treatment is not a specific requirement of the LWRP.”

“We are aware of previous work completed by Central Otago District Council (CODC) which presented costs and options to their council, however this was a process led by that council unrelated to the LWRP,” she said.

But she acknowledged through the ORC’s current regulatory role that costs for water infrastructure were a significant challenge for councils in general.

She stood by the claim that while Otago had some excellent water quality in Otago, like other regions, there were also significant “degradation challenges” for both urban and rural areas.

“Leaving it too late risks further environmental degradation in Otago, given our current plan has been widely acknowledged as no longer fit for the task at hand,” she said.

Cr Kelliher said if Otago’s waterways were so bad that they needed this “king hit plan” that will basically destroy the economy of rural Otago, then ORC needs to be very specific on where water was in such a state.  

“But we know that the science is vague, and water quality is improving and, actually, it’s improving from a largely good base anyway, it just has some hotspots that need focus. This doesn’t need the ruination of life as we know it in Otago.”

He said the draft LWRP ideologically preferred discharge to land, but there wasn’t science supporting this stance.  

“And ratepayers will have to foot the bill for all Central Otago towns having to find new land sites to discharge to. That is no simple exercise when at the moment treated water simply flows by gravity from existing plants. So, if residents have been worried about current rates rises, wait until billions need to be factored across all of Otago. And the worst thing is, there's no actual visible situation in dire need of fixing that justifies this. Which is why I am totally opposed to it.”

The plan was currently at Stage 4 with stakeholder consultation involving iwi, and was on track to be notified on October 31, despite the new National government saying it wanted regional councils to halt all water plans.