Pond pong getting up noses of Queenstown locals
From reporter Chris Tobin:
A foul odour wafting in breezes around Queenstown’s Glenda Drive, Shotover Delta Rd, and as far away as the suburb of Quail Rise has been irritating residents and visitors in the area.
Ann Esteves, a fleet co-ordinator for Yesaway Car Rental on Glenda Drive, said: “When it rains, it smells really bad.
“It all started a few weeks ago and a lot of customers have been coming in saying, ‘What’s that smell?’”
The Queenstown Lakes District Council said in a social media post that the decommissioning of an old oxidation pond near State Highway 6, the main highway into Queenstown, as part of the $37.5 million Shotover Wastewater Plant upgrade, had set off the smell.
The plant was being transitioned from biological and aerated “poo” pond treatment to “activated” sludge treatment.
Esteves said the intensity of the smell varied and on occasion even disappeared, but it was full blast smelly on Tuesday morning.
She liked to drive with her windows down. On the roads around her workplace or near the wastewater treatment plant, the windows were kept up.
Steph Williams of Elements Skin & Body Boutique, also on Glenda Drive, said she noticed the smell last week. Spending her workdays inside meant the smell was not too big of an issue.
However, when arriving for work on Tuesday morning, she received a strong whiff.
The council public statement said crews were covering a drained area with excavated material and would continue to monitor the pond stench both on the site and at different elevations.
“If required, the use of lime and odour mitigation sprays may be used, with sprays potentially used at an elevated level too.
“The remainder of pond 1 will be taken out of service over the next three weeks, at which point the dredging of sludge will commence.”
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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61.7% Summer
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36.7% Winter
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1.6% Other - I'll share below
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