Full wastewater pond closes Cardrona skifield

Cardrona Alpine Resort is hoping to reopen tomorrow after being closed since Tuesday because levels at a wastewater pond on the mountain remained too high for the skifield to operate normally.

A drainage operation, involving a convoy of water tankers which have trucked wastewater to a disposal facility in Queenstown, has been under way for the past three days.

Cardrona media spokeswoman Nadia Ellis told the Otago Daily Times the skifield would not be able to open today as hoped.

A cautious approach was being taken because Cardrona did not want to risk any potential environmental contamination landing below the skifield.

The ramifications of closing the skifield were "nothing compared to the the fallout" of a wastewater overflow, she said.

"We've certainly lowered it, but we want to make sure the pond is down to a level where a busy day on the skifield won't pose any future problems," Ms Ellis said.

Cardrona was doing "all we can" to keep people informed through its website, blog announcements, and Twitter messaging services, about resuming normal operations.

- NZPA