Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) says it is open to alternative wastewater treatments in the future, but its $80M investment underway already addresses future needs.

The comment comes in response to a Wānaka resident who has proposed the council rethink its approach to wastewater treatment.

Soner Bekir, who represents a distributed wastewater treatment called Algaesys, says the alternative approach is “cheaper, quicker, and removes the dependence on large-scale reticulated sewerage networks”. 

He said the technology for on-site wastewater treatment “could be used to help the Hāwea plant achieve its discharge limits in a very low risk and quick way (within six months) for a reasonable amount of money (less than trucking waste currently costs)”.

Last month QLDC announced it would limit new connections to the Hāwea wastewater network after the facility failed to achieve its 12-month rolling mean for nitrogen levels in its treated wastewater.

Soner said the Algaesys method could provide a path to wider-scale local adoption to help fast-track development and take a significant load off of the existing overstretched wastewater treatment plants - and said he had been “trying to engage” with QLDC about this.

He believed the council was “locked-in” to out-dated technology, and had “no interest” in thinking differently about wastewater treatment.

Algaesys provides technology for on-site wastewater treatment. PHOTO: Supplied

QLDC defended its wastewater treatment plans.

In December it committed to an $80M investment which will include major upgrades to the Hāwea wastewater scheme and the Wānaka wastewater network (Project Pure).

“QLDC has recently made significant decisions and investment in a number of wastewater treatment infrastructure projects across the district to address current and future needs,” a QLDC spokesperson told the Wānaka App.

“Any additional requirements in the future would be undertaken on a case-by-case basis to determine the most appropriate infrastructure solution for the requirements. 

“Algaesys system could potentially be considered alongside any other viable option for these future needs.”  

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