Westland Milk Products is building a new underground pipeline, which it hopes will discharge wastewater 800 metres out to sea.
Residents expressed anger about the Westland District Council’s current oxidation pond outfall in 2018 due to the odour it emitted and the fact its discharge pipe spilled directly onto the beach at low tide.
Neighbours said they were prisoners in their own homes due to the unbearable smell coming from the ponds. They also complained about the discharge, which included discoloured water, condoms and wipes.
In a statement, Westland Milk Products chief executive Toni Brendish said the company had spoken to the council about combining its new ocean outfall with the council’s oxidation ponds outlet.
“The final details are still to be confirmed. However … this will save Hokitika ratepayers millions of dollars.”
If the council joined the scheme, its outlet would combine with the company’s at a mixing chamber behind the beach. Both discharges could be monitored separately, before the combined outflow was piped underground and emerged underwater about 800m from the beach, she said.
The company’s current consent says its permissible discharge of up to 15,000 cubic metres per day can contain only treated wastewater from the dairy factory cleaning processes, truck wash water and cooling water and condensate. It is not allowed to contain human sewage. The consent covers an above ground pipe about 50m longer than the existing oxidation pond outfall.
A Westland Milk Products spokesman confirmed it had plans to construct the 800m outfall pipe and would follow all consent processes with regional authorities.
Brendish said the project had been updated to address concerns from locals about the potential affect on little blue penguin breeding colonies, and to reduce the visual impact of the outfall.
Hokitika resident Max Dowell said he was angry the district council and the regional councils had not publicly notified Westland Milk Products’ consent applications.
The public should have been consulted about the large pipeline, which he believed would cause major disruption to Hokitika roads during the year-long construction period, he said.
He also was dismayed to hear Westland Milk Products announce details of the project that were not consented for.
Brendish said the contract for the land-based pipeline, which would be about 4 kilometres long, had been awarded to Westland District Council-owned entity WestRoads.
Construction on the pipeline from the factory to the beach had begun and was due to be completed in December 2020.
Work on the beach-to-sea pipeline would begin in March and be completed by February 2021. The existing river discharge would stop in March 2021, Brendish said.
Westland mayor Bruce Smith said the council had put aside $1.9m in its 2019-20 annual plan to join the project, but a final decision would be made by the new councillors.
Westland Milk Products was taken over by Chinese company Yili earlier this year after farmers voted 94 per cent in favour of a $558 million offer and the deal was approved by the Overseas Investment Office. Yili is the largest milk processor in China and is 25 per cent owned by the Chinese government.