QLDC’s Avery approved illegal wall $’s – Mooney under pressure
More sewage facts revealed.
Analysis
There have been some major developments in the evolving sewage crisis this week – including an admission from the Queenstown Lakes District Council that their Infrastructure General Manager Tony Avery (above left) commissioned contractor Veolia to build the non-consented two-kilometre wall around the failed Shotover disposal field in April 2024.
The council did not inform the sewage plant regulator, the Otago Regional Council, about the wall construction. Elected councillors were also kept in the dark. It’s not clear exactly where the $600,000 - $800,000 cost came from.
The sewage plant failure has the potential to stop all Queenstown development for the next five or more years and cost more than a billion dollars in lost property development revenue. The repair costs are likely to involve significant QLDC expenditure.
In a highly unusual move the QLDC, after months of refusing to answer this key question – who paid for the wall – released the information to Crux under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) within 24 hours of our latest request, instead of the permitted 20 days.
Local MP Joseph Mooney (above right) issued this brief statement to Crux in response to us asking him for his clear position on the sewage crisis.
"Safe and compliant treatment of sewage is very important for our community and the environment. Whilst I want to see a swift and compliant solution to the situation, the responsibility to provide that solution lies with the QLDC, and as the matter is currently before the courts I am unable to comment further at this stage."
This statement varies in one important aspect to questions we have asked of Government Ministers and environment agencies, all of whom say that it is the responsibility of the Otago Regional Council (ORC), as regulator, to get the sewage plant fixed.
The ORC has applied to the Environment Court for an enforcement order that will force QLDC to fix the sewage plant.
Mayor Lewers has claimed, in an interview with The Platform in January this year, that the sewage problems were limited to the disposal field which had no real purpose and in any case was the fault of a “previous council for cultural (iwi) reasons.”