Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) owns and operates the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), located on the Shotover River Delta near Queenstown.
They hold resource consents from ORC that cover a range of activities on site, including the discharge of treated wastewater. Otago Regional Council (ORC) monitors compliance with conditions of consents and processes any consent applications.
We rely on the public to let us know where and when you see pollution of air, waterways, land and the coastal marine area. Our pollution hotline is 0800 800 033. Or you can use our online form:
ORC’s mandate is to work with our communities to make sure our region’s natural resources are managed sustainably.
Our consents and compliance work has four aspects:
Processing consents: we use consents to manage activities so that any harm they may have on our communities, or the environment is reduced.
Monitoring compliance: we monitor activities to make sure they comply with consent conditions and permitted activity rules.
Responding to incidents: we respond to reports of environmental non-compliance and pollution incidents.
Enforcing: we consider all available options to ensure compliance with the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), resource consents, our regional plans, and national regulations and standards.
In this case, ORC is the consenting authority, so it has requirements under the RMA to monitor consent compliance. ORC is not the wastewater treatment plant operator or owner.
Investigations into incidents on the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) wastewater treatment site have been the highest priority investigation for ORC. Compliance monitoring is ongoing to ensure that QLDC achieves compliance with consent conditions which cover the operation of the wastewater site.
Any incidents on the site are ORC’s highest priority investigation and are taken very seriously. All compliance investigation needs to be thorough and to a high standard and in undertaking their investigations ORC has ensured this happens.
As part of ongoing investigations ORC has sought technical specialist advice around the site since July 2024.
As of 4 April 2025, ORC has undertaken the following compliance actions:
2 x Abatement notices
- Requires actions within a certain timeframe.
10 x Infringements issued
- Written notice and fine (set as between $300-$1000 in the regulations).
1 x Enforcement Order application (in progress)
- Order by the Court requiring a person to take or stop actions within a set time.
Regular Monitoring
- ORC staff are onsite regularly to monitor the discharges and compliance.
- As of 7 April 2025, ORC will undertake weekly monitoring at Council’s SOE monitoring site on the Kawarua at Chard Road to weekly.
As of 22 January 2025, ORC lodged an application with the Environment Court seeking an Enforcement Order against the QLDC around aspects of its operation of the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant, near Queenstown, which QLDC owns and operates.
The order sought will require QLDC to undertake a number of actions aimed at achieving compliance on site. The matter was referred to court facilitated mediation.
Any future compliance action relating to the operation would occur in line with ORC’s Compliance and Enforcement Policy and the tools available to the Council under the Resource Management Act 1991
ORC have been regularly undertaking testing to monitor compliance with consented limits and conditions. This occurs at a standard series of locations to enable trend data to be collected. Testing includes investigation of E. coli – Escherichia coli, TBOD – Total Biochemical Oxygen Demand, TN – Total Nitrogen, and TSS – Total Suspended Solids.
The samples are analysed based on consents parameters, and, where appropriate, other parameters used to detect wastewater. Sampling is completed by ORC staff in line with sampling procedures and analysed in an independent lab.
If staff are responding to an incident on site, samples are taken from the regular sampling sites and other locations as needed.
QLDC are also required to undertaken monitoring under their consent conditions and return samples to ORC. This is analysed by a lab and then by ORC staff.
COMING SOON: Result of monitoring required under QLDC’s resource consent will be shown here on a dashboard.
Any results and data shown here, have not been interpreted by staff and are no indication of any compliance status, any environmental effect or any compliance action.
ORC has been taking weekly samples on site since before Christmas 2024. Following QLDC’s decision to use powers under s330/330A of the RMA to undertake emergency works at the Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant, a new sampling schedule has been stood up, alongside more frequent monitoring.
From the week starting 7 April, the revised ORC sampling sites will be:
- Upstream entirely of the Shotover WWTP and ponds (before the SH6 bridge)
- Final discharge post-UV
- Discharge to the river (at the last realistic and safe point)
- Approximately 200 meters downstream
- Any discharge from the disposal field, if still discharging.
- Upstream of Kawarau River
- Downstream of Kawarau River (past Shotover river)
The above sites have been chosen so that any impacts on the Shotover and Kawarau can be monitored. Samples will be taken by ORC staff inline with sampling processes. Results will be analysed at an independent lab.
Result of monitoring undertaken by ORC at the new sites will be uploaded here. Before being uploaded any results need to be returned from the lab and checked for upload2. Check back soon for a new (under-development) dashboard.
Any results and data shown here, have not been interpreted by staff and are no indication of any compliance status, any environmental effect or any compliance action.
The additional monitoring by ORC, is as well as monitoring that QLDC needs to do under their resource consent and extra monitoring they are doing.
2. Results may not be uploaded to the website until 10 plus days after a sample is taken due to lab processing times and the need to consider if the results are evidence.
10 April 2025
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Since the emergency discharge of treated wastewater to the Shotover River began on 31st March 2025, ORC compliance officers have conducted two sampling rounds: one on 31st March and another on 7th April 2025.
On 31st March, samples were taken from the discharge channel itself and upstream and downstream in the Shotover River. These samples showed E. coli levels of 730 CFU (colony-forming units) per 100 mL of water in the discharge channel and 370 CFU/100 mL at the downstream location.
These higher E. coli results are not a reliable indication of the treatment performance of the Shotover WWTP, as they were taken after the discharge left the treatment process and were likely affected by the first flush of any natural materials in the channel, such as rabbit droppings and decaying vegetation.
The sampling round conducted on 7th April 2025 was more extensive and included the final discharge at the official sampling point downstream of the UV tertiary treatment stage as well as the discharge channel and other upstream and downstream locations (refer official map). The Shotover final effluent (IN25.0273B) sampled at the official point post-UV was fully compliant with the consent limit of 260 CFU/100 mL, showing an extremely low result of less than 1 CFU/100 mL. The sample taken in the discharge channel 7th April 2025 showed E. coli was 4 CFU/100 mL.
For comparison, in New Zealand, the drinking water standard for E. coli is less than 1 CFU/100 mL.
The six locations sampled on 7th April, including the location after the final treatment process, are the official points going forward and will be tested weekly, with results posted on the ORC website.
Existing State of the Environment Monitoring data is available on the Environmental Data Portal for Kawarau at Chard Road. This site is located on the Kawarau River and is monitored as part of Council’s State of the Environment monitoring programme. The frequency of the sampling at this site has been increased from monthly to weekly, to ensure the community has access to more frequent monitoring results.
QLDC is the plant owner and operator and must comply with their consent obligations and take actions on the site to do this. This includes monitoring of discharges which QLDC are required to undertake and return to ORC.
The discharge to the Shotover is being undertaken via Emergency Works provisions provided under s330 of the RMA. This means that there is not currently a consent or application in place for this activity with specific limits. Subject to affects being ongoing, QLDC must apply for one within 20 working days of notifying ORC of emergency works.
When a consent application is received that relates to the emergency works, or any other short-term application for the site then we will know more about how the discharge will be managed. It is anticipated that the quality of the wastewater is still highly treated and complying with relevant post treatment limits. We continue to monitor the site and water quality.
If and when an application is received and accepted for processing by ORC, a notification assessment will be undertaken to determine whether the application can be processed on a non-notified basis, or whether it should be limited notified or proceed with full public notification.
Further information from QLDC:
Any QLDC application for retrospective consent around SWTP operations will be viewable online shortly after it's lodged with ORC. ORC will not comment on an application while it is being assessed.
Once the application is online this does not mean it is open for submissions or feedback – it will be online for information and awareness. Any decision on public notification and submissions will be made in line with the RMA.
The timeline to process an application depends on whether additional information is required and whether the application is notified or non-notified.
Information on processing timelines under the RMA can be found in our consents section:
We rely on the public to let us know where and when you see pollution of air, waterways, land and the coastal marine area. Our pollution hotline is 0800 800 033. Or you can use our online form:
