CODC Rejects Plan to Spread Sludge on Lauder Farmland

The council had been considering the option to deal with more than 20,000 cubic metres of sludge stored in geobags and at the bottom of aeration ponds at the Cromwell wastewater treatment plant.

Councillors instead chose to continue trucking the sludge to a landfill in Winton, the disposal method used previously.

Federated Farmers Otago president Anna Gillespie welcomed the outcome.

"It's heartening that councillors have heeded the anger and strong warnings from rural residents in Lauder and the wider Manuherekia catchment," Gillespie said.

"The understandable motivation was to save ratepayers' money in these tough times, but that cannot be at the expense of the environment and water quality in a sensitive catchment."

Gillespie said Mayor Tamah Alley and Deputy Mayor Tracy Paterson had acknowledged during the process that rural residents shouldn't be expected to bear the impact of waste generated in urban areas.

Council officers had warned of potential rural community fightback and possible delays to urgent work needed at both the Cromwell and Alexandra treatment plants if a decision was delayed. But new information emerged suggesting the existing Lauder consent might only cover about half of what CODC needed to dispose of, while the projected ratepayer savings from using Lauder narrowed from an initial $600,000 estimate to $182,000.

Gillespie said Federated Farmers had questioned the science and modelling behind the original consent allowing sludge from Wānaka and Albert Town to be spread at the former sheep and beef farm at Lauder since it was first granted.

"The prospect of more sludge from Cromwell and Alexandra was truly alarming," she said.

She said Otago Regional Council (ORC) was now reviewing the conditions of that original consent in light of concerns Federated Farmers had raised.

"It's pleasing to learn that Otago Regional Council is now reviewing those consent conditions in light of the points we've been making."