ORC Chief Executive Richard Saunders says ORC has set up a new water monitoring programme at six sites, since the commencement of emergency works. These sites are adjacent to, upstream and downstream of the treatment plant, and are being monitored weekly.

The emergency works enacted by QLDC were to bypass the problematic (soak) disposal field and to discharge treated wastewater directly into the Shotover river. QLDC have 20 working days to apply to ORC for a retrospective consent to undertake that discharge. An application has not yet been received.

“Given the public interest in the discharge from the treatment plant, we’ve created a webpage to enable people to access all the most up-to-date information on the Shotover plant in one place. This includes the results of our weekly monitoring,” he says.

It is expected that a treated water samples taken on any given day will take at least 10-days to be processed by the independant laboratory and returned, and then be assessed by staff, before it can be added to the website. Monitoring data will be shared at the earliest opportunity.

The website will be monitored by our team and changes will be made to ensure it provides the information that is most useful to the community, Mr Saunders says.

He says some initial monitoring on the first day of the discharge showed some high levels of contaminants present, which can be expected with the flushing of the wastewater outlet channel, which bypasses the disposal field.

Preliminary monitoring results from this week (7 April) shows low levels of E.coli at the treatment plant outlet, which gives us confidence that the treatment processes are operating as expected, Mr Saunders says.

He said alongside the regular testing, ORC staff would continue to respond to any complaints from the public when reported to ORC.

Mr Saunders highlighted ORC had taken several steps since problems arose with the plant’s operations, going back to 2021.

ORC has sought an Enforcement Order, on 23 January, from the Environment Court to address current compliance issues at the treatment plant, and that process is ongoing. That application follows the issuing to date of two abatement notices and 10 infringement notices. (see note below).

Mr Saunders says the Environment Court mediation is ongoing; however we are hopeful for an outcome in the near future.

“It’s important to note that QLDC is responsible for ensuring that the discharge from the Shotover plant remains compliant with the consented limits. Where there are issues identified by QLDC staff or contractors we expect these to be reported to ORC,” Mr Saunders says.

The new web page be accessed from ORC’s web site, searching S in the A-Z search field or by clicking the tile:

Background

Two abatement notices are in place and 10 infringements have been issued since the start of 2024.  Five of these infringement notices have been issued this year (2025) relating to issues that happened on site towards the end of 2024.

ORC cannot yet provide copies of the infringement notices, as they are still subject to an appeal period at present.

All the (5) new notices that have been issued, relate to the alleged discharge of contaminants (namely treated wastewater) to land on the Shotover Delta in circumstances which may result in contaminant (or any other contaminant entering water; namely groundwater), the Shotover River and/or Kawarau River.

Mr Saunders says there were several enforcement options available under the Resource Management Act 1991. Compliance tools ranged from abatement notices, infringement notices, enforcement orders and prosecution. All options were considered, in line with policy, he says.