Central Otago District Council in New Zealand may drop plans to spread treated sewage sludge from Cromwell on farmland near Lauder after finding the site might take only half of it. Staff now recommend sending the stored sludge to the Winton landfill in Southland, at an estimated cost of more than $3 million including de-sludging the ponds.

The original plan used a non-notified consent that already lets Wānaka's sludge be disposed of on the Lauder property, and would have saved at least $600,000. About 20,000 cubic metres of sludge sits in Cromwell's ponds and in geobags from a decade ago that must be moved urgently to avoid triggering tighter nitrogen limits on the treatment plant's consent.

Federated Farmers Otago president Anna Gillespie said local farmers, who had worked to improve water quality, were angry the consent went through without notification. "Experienced local farmers know what a farm like this, with porous gravely soils and low rainfall, can realistically produce by way of crops to soak up effluent nutrients," she said, warning of risks upstream of public water intakes. Sludge from Alexandra may still go to Lauder within the consent conditions.

Photo: Pseudopanax / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: Farmers Weekly NZ