The chair of the Hāwea Community Association (HCA) has refrained from saying “I told you so” to the council following its decision this week to restrict connections to the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

New connections to the wastewater network will be limited until the network is upgraded, “to protect the environment and meet regulatory requirements”, Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) said on Tuesday (September 30).

QLDC is currently operating under an abatement notice from Otago Regional Council (ORC) in relation to its compliance with nitrogen discharge limits, and the Hāwea facility failed to achieve its 12-month rolling mean for nitrogen levels in its treated wastewater.

Read more: Council limits new connections to Hāwea wastewater

HCA acting chair Cherilyn Walthew said she was shocked at the decision.

“[Council chief executive] Mike Theelen looked me in the eye and told us in May of this year that everything was under control, despite the abatement notice issued around April,” she told the Wānaka App.

“He told us that if it became a problem, they would have to look at holding tanks because the [Resource Management Act] said they couldn't halt development.”

The HCA has raised ongoing concerns for years about inadequate infrastructure in the growing township - including the existing wastewater treatment plant, the drinking water supply, and the future plans for wastewater.

The HCA identified Cemetery Road as the preferred boundary for the township in 2015 and has fought against residential development outside that boundary. It fought council’s consent of a Special Housing Area (Longview) outside that boundary, arguing - among other reasons - there was insufficient infrastructure in place for the development.

It also opposed an extension of the township’s urban boundary to Domain Road in 2023, which led to a long court battle between the group and QLDC, developers, and ORC.

Hāwea’s urban growth boundary was expanded just two years ago. PHOTO: Wānaka App

The HCA had argued there was a lack of infrastructure in place to service new homes, but on the day the HCA entered mediation with the other groups, central government announced $24M to fix Lake Hāwea’s overstretched wastewater system, “providing a path to development”, Cherilyn said.

Hāwea’s connection to Project Pure was “instrumental in a lot of this happening”, she said, although no definite time frame was available.

Read more: Potential and pain on Hāwea’s ‘path to development’

The court’s decision posed significant infrastructure challenges, councillor Lyal Cocks and deputy mayor Quentin Smith said at the time.

“We’re nowhere near being able to provide the infrastructure to the final number of houses,” Quentin said in 2023, noting the township’s capacity had leapt to 5,000 homes.

The government’s $24M grant for Project Pure did not cover any new development, and Quentin said there are “some harsh realities there on the impact it will have on our programme in terms of accounting for all the infrastructure demands that come from that growth”.

This week, Cherilyn said QLDC has been “pushing back on people for the last month or so” by not consenting subdivisions of property (from one property to two) because of a lack of potable water. 

“So there's two reasons they're not consenting. Could the public have been correct about the infrastructure deficit?”

A QLDC spokesperson told the Wānaka App that subdivisions now underway in Lake Hāwea, including Koreke Rise (approved in 2023) and the first stage of Falcon Rise (approved just a few weeks ago) fall under exemptions to this week’s decision.

“It’s important to note any consent being processed or still to come can still be consented. They will have conditions of consent imposed on them (should they be approved) that restrict the ability to connect to the Hāwea Wastewater Treatment Plant,” the spokesperson said.

Read more: Bigger than Ben Hur: Multi-million dollar wastewater upgrades on the books