A few months back Queenstown Councillor, Niki Gladding, exposed that the Council was debating the pouring of sewage directly into their local river in secret meeting behind closed doors. She was attacked by her fellow Councillors and removed from all Council committees.
This week a report was written by RNZ . The article wrote:
The Environment Court ordered the district council to pay the Otago Regional Council the costs associated with monitoring, investigating, testing and reporting connected to applying for the enforcement orders.
That was on top of paying the “reasonable costs” for the regional council undertaking environmental monitoring and collecting samples at the Shotover River, Kawarau River and Shotover Delta.
The decision detailed what upgrades, contingency measures, timeframes and milestones needed to be met including staff training, repairs and improvements to the wastewater treatment plant.
The Council was fined $235,000 and I wonder if the Council will apologise to Cr Gladding who was the only courageous one to challenge the original secretive behaviour.
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