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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
'We can't sustain these numbers': Wānaka rates rise questioned
Queenstown Lakes District deputy mayor Quentin Smith questioned why the Wānaka rates were significantly higher when many of the council's projects were focused on Queenstown. Photo: ODT Files Double-figure rates rises across most of the Queenstown Lakes were defended yesterday. The district council set rates at its meeting in Wānaka yesterday. Wānaka had the highest rates in the region for the upcoming year. Councillors were presented with the 2025-26 final rates for the whole region compared with the rates that were estimated in the draft 2024-34 long-term plan adopted last year. A report said the district recently had its three-yearly revaluation. New valuations on September 1 last year had been used for the assessment of rates for this year's rates. Although the total capital value had grown by 20.6%, the impact of the revaluation on rates was more pronounced for some types of property, the report said. In simple terms, if a property experienced a capital change of significantly more or less than the 20.6% average, rates payable would change up or down according to the degree of difference. The impact of the rates increases for 2025-26 would not be even across all property types and locations. This was largely because of the impact of targeted rates which were often ward or scheme-based and the availability of reticulated services, the report said. Most final rates had increased from the proposed rates in the long-term plan — Wānaka and the Upper Clutha had higher rates. The median residential rates increase for median value residential homes went from 18.7% for Wānaka, 17.6% for Luggate, 15.3% for Hāwea and 13.2% for Queenstown. The lowest median residential rate for the region was Arrowtown with a rate of 10.6%. Wānaka surpassed rates for most other property types, including median commercial rates which were set to be 14.4% compared with Queenstown's 9%. Accommodation property rates rose 22.4% in Wānaka compared with 11.4% in Queenstown. Queenstown Lakes District deputy mayor Quentin Smith questioned why the Wānaka rates were significantly higher when many of the council's projects were focused on Queenstown. The main justification given was the planned upgrades for the Upper Clutha wastewater conveyance scheme and more specifically to the Project Pure treatment plant. The purpose of the project was to ensure the resilience of Hāwea's wastewater needs as well as strengthen the wider Wānaka and Albert Town wastewater network. The project was one of the largest in the region and was costing several million dollars. "We cannot sustain these numbers," Mr Smith said, referencing Wānaka's rates. "We will need to find other ways to generate revenue." Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers said during the meeting that 85% of operating expenses had gone towards core services such as building consents, recourse planning, transport, wastewater, stormwater, water supply and waste management. "This idea that we are frivolous in spending is completely and utterly erroneous."
Otago Daily Times
27-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
QLDC rejects wastewater allegation
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has rejected Otago Regional Council allegations the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant is overloaded and suffering from under-investment by the council. In a statement last week, the district council said it had received an abatement notice from the ORC because the Hāwea plant failed to achieve its 12-month rolling mean for nitrogen levels in its treated wastewater discharged to an oxidation pond on site. The notice came amid QLDC's troubles at its Shotover treatment plant, which is discharging 12,000 cubic metres of treated wastewater directly into the Shotover River daily, bypassing the plant's failing disposal field. Otago regional councillor Michael Laws said the failure at QLDC's Hāwea plant provided further evidence of past under-investment in infrastructure, which had been exposed by rapid population growth. However, a QLDC spokesman said the Hāwea wastewater treatment plant, while approaching capacity, was not overloaded. "The plant is consented to receive an average daily flow of 370 cubic metres per day, at an average total nitrogen concentration of 35mg per litre. "The average daily flow over the past 12 months has been 366 cubic metres per day, so while the plant has very limited capacity to accept additional connections, it continues to meet current demand." He said prior to 2023, the plant consisted of a traditional oxidation pond with supplementary aeration. "The plant was unable to achieve compliance with the resource consent at the time and was subject to an abatement notice associated with persistent non-compliances — namely exceedances of the ammonia and nitrogen concentrations in the discharge, and the associated usage of the land treatment area (LTA)." Given historical non-compliance of Hāwea's treatment plant and the need to cater for significant growth in the catchment, he said plans were already in place to connect the township to Project Pure/Wānaka Wastewater Treatment Plant. "This planned connection is part of the wider Upper Clutha Wastewater Conveyance Scheme project, which will see significant investment in wastewater management capacity across both the Hāwea and Wānaka schemes." Funding for the project was included in the adopted QLDC Long-Term Plan 2024-34, and had an overall budget of $80.1 million which included about $22 million of funding from the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, he said. "As a result of the timeframe to implement this long-term solution, investment was made to upgrade the existing plant during 2021-22 to improve its performance, funded through a 3 Waters Reform Stimulus grant. "The upgrade employed a side stream process to reduce the levels of ammonia and nitrogen in the treated water, with improvements also made to the oxidation pond and LTA. "A new resource consent was also obtained at this time, expiring July 7, 2033." Following the commissioning of the upgraded facility in February 2023, the plant had largely performed as anticipated, he said. However, the operational team had encountered some challenges in "learning and optimising the new treatment process", which resulted in fluctuations which have impacted the plant's 12-month rolling average nitrogen levels. He said the present average of 41mg per litre was above the consent requirement of 35mg per litre. "The elevated nitrogen levels are predominantly being driven by challenges in managing the algal solids in the discharge, which contain organic nitrogen. "The upgrade is actually largely performing as intended and we are focused on optimising operations to enable compliance."
