Don’t be a queasy shade of green, QLDC

Anyone take issue with the Queenstown Lakes District being named one of New Zealand’s three Tree Cities of the World?

Not us. It seems churlish to get into the semantics about distinctions between a city, an urban area, and a district.

The fact remains that the benediction bestowed by the Arbor Day Foundation and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation merits kudos.

You might sense a ‘‘but’’ coming. You should. The district council’s chest has swollen and it announced the award as one that boosts the district’s ‘‘reputation as clean, green and sustainable’’.

Before it weaves itself too many leafy green garlands, the council would do well to moderate its skiting given the reputational knocks it has taken lately.

The district may face no reproach from the Ents of Middle Earth, but on other fronts the council’s own reputation of late has been more a queasy shade of green.

It sought consent to discharge raw sewage into Queenstown and Wa¯ naka’s lakes and such rivers and streams as may prove necessary. Essentially it wanted approval on a ‘‘couldn’t be helped’’ basis, what with no systems being perfect. You wouldn’t try that shrugging approach with any success at the council-managed swimming pools and, thankfully, it didn’t much impress the Otago Regional Council either.

After a series of prosecutions and substantial fines, for an inglorious series of squalid discharges, the regional council quite rightly declined the application. Of 200 public submissions a grand total of three supported the case.

Whereupon the the district council last month decided – when it could make itself heard over the howls of reproach from an appalled public – that it wouldn’t traipse to the Environment Court to appeal the decision.

Instead it felt – the word was ‘‘encouraged’’ – by the lack of support to consider new investment to address the risk of overflows. Which is good. Which is to say necessary and about time.

It’s hardly as though this council stands alone with water infrastructure problems. Significant non-compliance has been identified by the Clutha and Central Otago councils too. But for all the pressures of rampant growth and a small ratepayer base, the fact remains that the QLDC network needs serious attention.

Which is why another QLDC press release on March 13 is far more consequential and therefore more welcome.

A major upgrade to Wakatipu wastewater infrastructure is set to start next week.

The pledge is that it will provide more resilience, through a new wastewater pump station at the Queenstown Recreation Ground and a pipeline across the town centre to carry wastewater to the Frankton trunk sewer, taking pressure off the existing Marine Parade pump station at Queenstown Bay that currently takes wastewater from Gorge Rd, Arthurs Point, Fernhill, Sunshine Bay, and western and central Queenstown.

The QLDC faces major infrastructural pressures, not easily confronted given their scale.

But the ‘‘clean, green and sustainable’’ reputation the council cites is no mere advertising fantasy. It needs to hold true.

It’s hardly as though this council stands alone with water infrastructure problems.