Boss of overgrown wastewater facility near Lake Wakatipu faces $4m fine for breaking rules

Thursday, 11 June 2026

An overgrown wastewater treatment plant accumulating “sludge and odorous material” could have contaminated groundwater that entered Lake Wakatipu.

Bryce Norman Biggs and his companies Lake Wakatipu Trustee Ltd and Humboldt Park Ltd each accepted ignoring orders from the Otago Regional Council at the Environment Court in Christchurch last week.

The council charged Biggs and his companies with contravening or permitting the contravention of an abatement notice for a year. The notice demanded action over the state of Biggs’ non-consented wastewater treatment plant in Glenorchy.

The companies face a maximum $600,000 fine under the Resource Management Act, and $10,000 for every day the offence continued - equating to $3.65 million. Biggs could be jailed for up to two years, or fined up to $300,000 and the cumulative daily penalty of $3.65m.

Biggs’ facility treated wastewater from almost 40 homes before pumping it into a disposal field, where it could enter groundwater which flows into Lake Wakatipu, according to the summary of facts.

Someone complained about the treatment plant in January 2023, which prompted the council to visit the site. It found it overgrown with vegetation, wastewater bypassing two septic tanks, and some near-full tanks at risk of overflowing.

Biggs last held a resource consent in October 2016.

Enforcement officers met the boss later that month and the council issued his company an abatement notice to stop discharging until it gained permission to do so, and to run the facility in accordance with its operation manual.

Six months later, the council issued the company infringement notices for discharging human sewage and wastewater into land “in circumstances that could result in it entering water”, plus for discharging contaminant odour into the air.

Another company owned by Biggs paid the infringement notices.

The council tried to work with Biggs to have the facility reconsented and for repair and maintenance works in 2024 and 2025, but he largely did not co-operate.

It searched the wastewater plant and disposal field in July 2025 and found the facility was not being operated in accordance with the operation manual. The failures were found in parts of the facility systems, as well as its general upkeep.

“The site was observed to be overgrown, with equipment and equipment debris scattered in parts of the site. Holes and trip hazards were evident. The potable water appeared to be disconnected.”

The council noted “rank grass, pasture weeds and broom scrubs” - some of which appeared to be years old - could have posed a fire risk. The site was still overgrown in November 2025.

In October 2025, Biggs arranged for contractors to empty and dispose of “the sludge and odorous material that had accumulated within the wastewater system”.

The council warned the surrounding Glenorchy soils had “little capacity to handle the incoming effluent quality”.

The discharge of partially treated wastewater could lead to the discharge of contaminated groundwater to Lake Wakatipu, it said.

The council included water quality grading of the nearby Buckle Burn River, Rees River and Lake Wakatipu from July 2017 to June 2022 which largely ranked them in the best category.

Nonetheless, it warned ponding of wastewater discharged from a treatment plant could cause disease, flies and mosquitoes, algae blooms and general deterioration of freshwater systems.

The council sought a long list of improvements from the facility, which included applying for a resource consent, repairing mechanical problems, cleaning, reporting and demonstrating the facility was working as expected.

In response to an interview request from the council in 2023, Biggs pointed to the “fiasco” of the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s historic plans for a community wastewater system, and said he had been providing users with his system at cost for 28 years.

He also said he wanted to shut the operation down, but never did.

At court on Friday, the council withdrew some charges against Biggs and his companies before the defendants pleaded guilty. Judge Kelvin Reid scheduled the sentencing for July.

In pleading guilty, Biggs accepted the summary of facts.