Raw sewage spilled from Moeraki is threatening a waterway and possibly the famous boulders beach.
Resident Alan Goodall said the North Otago township's new sewage plant had been leaking "for months and months".
There was raw sewage about 20 metres off the main road leading from State Highway 1 into Moeraki.
Mr Goodall
said he had contacted the Waitaki District Council about the problem, and two or three other people had also made complaints.
Staff had been sent to fix the leak, but he described their efforts as "Mickey Mouse".
Mr Goodall said the sewerage scheme was not up to standard and he feared it would not be rectified before its guarantee ran out.
The costs would then fall back on ratepayers, who were already facing hefty bills because their land values had skyrocketed.
"We paid for a certain scheme up to a certain standard. At the moment, we haven't got it. It's a damned disgrace."
Council assets group manager Philip Bell said yesterday that the first he knew of the problem was when the Otago Regional Council phoned on Monday morning.
Neither he nor water services engineer Dean Sulzberger had been informed about the leak.
Moeraki was a sensitive area and the sewerage scheme was a small one, he said.
"Anything that goes wrong is a big thing."
The Waitaki council was eager to ensure that the plant was working correctly, to safeguard public health and meet the regional council's stringent conditions.
District council staff were at the Moeraki site on Monday and yesterday and would fix the problem, Mr Bell said.
The gravity-feed pipe had a partial blockage that would be cleared.
- NZPA
