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By local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
Abandoning efforts to protect Franz Josef farmers from the Waiho River would imperil the West Coast’s famed tourist route – State Highway 6, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is warning.
NZTA has responded to challenges from Franz Josef’s … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
Abandoning efforts to protect Franz Josef farmers from the Waiho River would imperil the West Coast’s famed tourist route – State Highway 6, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is warning.
NZTA has responded to challenges from Franz Josef’s north bank ratepayers, who face big rate rises to protect their neighbours living and farming across the river on the Waiho Flats.
Businessman Logan Skinner and others have queried the point of spending $10 million in government and ratepayer funds to strengthen southern stopbanks, when the river clearly wants to head south to its natural flood plain.
But NZTA says the stop bank network on both sides of the river has to be seen as one joined-up system, including Waka Kotahi’s massive flood walls that run beside SH6.
“There’s no point NZTA raising our stop banks alone if any of the other banks protecting the state highway are lower," NZTA's South Island manager Mark Pinner said.
“Any low point in a stop bank upstream of the state highway could compromise the road, so we need to have joined up or consistently uniform design levels and construction for the north and south stop banks as a whole.”
NZTA was working with the West Coast Regional Council to look at longer term options for the road and the river, he said.
But in the meantime the southern stop banks needed to match the height of the northern ones to prevent overtopping if the river moved channels, Pinner said.
“This can happen in any larger flood, given this is one of the most dynamic braided river systems in the country.”
South bank dairy farmer Neil Frendrup said contrary to Skinner’s argument, the prospect of abandoning the Waiho Flats made no economic sense.
“We produce 391kg of milk solids a year from our farm alone, and I don’t know how much the dry stock farms produce but there’s a hell of a lot of food coming off the south bank.”
Frendrup’s 1000 cows feed on his 600 hectares of grass, but he lost 30 hectares of pasture to the river a couple of years ago, when the river came around the end of the existing Milton stop bank.
The 83-year-old was hoping to sell the farm and retire this year, but his hopes were dashed after the government ruled out a buyout of his $3.7m CV property, and others on the flats.
“Then there was talk of abandoning the south bank and no-one’s gonna buy land they think could be destroyed so like it or not we’ve got to be here a bit longer."
Losing productive farms was not the only risk involved of letting the river roam over the Waho Flats – it could also unleash environmental mayhem, Frendrup said.
“There’s an old rubbish dump on our side, and if the river got into that the stuff that came out of the old Fox dump would be nothing compared to the Franz one.”
(Tonnes of rubbish were washed downstream in 2019 when a flood broke open an old landfill on the banks of the Fox River, costing $3m for a three-year clean-up job.)
The idea of re-routing SH6 to the east and abandoning the Flats which had been suggested in the past, was also a bad one, Frendrup said.
“Doing away with the stopbank and putting the main road along the base of the Alps doesn’t seem very sensible to me, when the Alpine Fault is overdue for its 300 year major quake.“
After farming the south bank and watching the river for 16 years, Frendrup thinks the solution is relatively simple.
“They need to extend the (south side) Milton and Others stopbank about 200 metres and bulldoze a track for the river closer to the (north side) hill, going down to the sea so it can flow in a channel closer to the north bank."
West Coast Regional Council chairperson Peter Haddock said the plan to strengthen the southern stop banks was based on advice from its technical advisory group, which analysed years of reports on the Waiho.
“The experts advised that would give at least 10 years protection to south side community, while the Westland District Council did a master plan aimed at relocating houses as river gradually released to the south."
But the government focus had since changed from buyouts to holding the line with stop banks, Haddock said.
The council had lobbied hard and Minister Shane Jones had allocated $6m for the project, with all Franz Josef ratepayers asked to chip in $4m.
“The north side now has its stopbank but the south side is still vulnerable,” Haddock said.
“And it’s a large contributor to the local and West Coast economy.”
*LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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By local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
The Grey District Council has asked the Ministry for the Environment to investigate the process that led to a company being given consents for a private dump directly above the Greymouth water treatment plant.
Mayor Tania Gibson says her council is … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
The Grey District Council has asked the Ministry for the Environment to investigate the process that led to a company being given consents for a private dump directly above the Greymouth water treatment plant.
Mayor Tania Gibson says her council is not satisfied the Taylorville Resource Park landfill is safe and has not been able to resolve the issue of how consents were granted, by the West Coast Regional Council.
Neither the council nor the dump’s neighbours, nor local iwi were consulted when the WCRC consented to the dumping of demolition and construction waste on private land at Coal Creek.
The company – whose directors are also directors of Timaru-based Paul Smith Earthmoving - was served with an abatement notice in March by the Environmental Protection Authority, after tests showed an unlined sediment pond was leaching contaminated water.
That notice was lifted this month after the company complied with orders to empty the pond and build a new lined one.
But Grey District mayor Tania Gibson says that does not go far enough.
“We believe the landfill should never have been consented for this sort of waste in the first place; who builds a dump ab ove a water supply these days? We’re unhappy that we weren’t considered an affected party and we’ve written to the Ministry for the Environment asking them to look into how that was allowed to happen.”
Her council had also written to the Ministry of Health alerting it to the potential hazard it believes the dump poses to public health.
“We all learned from Havelock North’s experience and we want to make sure the risks are known to the authorities – in case there’s a major landslide or earthquake and contaminated material comes down, and enters the water supply.”
The regional council had declined to give her council information about the investigation and monitoring process, citing legal advice, Mrs Gibson said.
“It’s been very frustrating when one council won’t share information with another - they asked us not to go to the Ministry, but they’ve left us no option."
Both the WCRC and Taylorville Resource Park Ltd. have been approached for comment.
*LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
By local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
Franz Josef community leaders are urging the West Coast Regional Council to think twice before saddling them with a $4 million debt for flood protection.
The Government has offered the council $6 million to build stopbanks protecting farms and … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
Franz Josef community leaders are urging the West Coast Regional Council to think twice before saddling them with a $4 million debt for flood protection.
The Government has offered the council $6 million to build stopbanks protecting farms and lifestyle blocks on the south banks of the Waiho River opposite the town, if ratepayers contribute the remaining $4m.
The sum would also cover extensions to a stopbank on the north bank protecting Franz Josef’s sewerage ponds.
The council is contacting property owners this week by mail with details of the loan offer and what they would be up for in special rates.
It has previously said a $400,000 property would pay an extra $1076 a year and an $800,000 one would pay $2152, over a ten-year loan period.
Just north of Franz Josef, Stony Creek resident Adam Haugh said he and his neighbours, who live out of the flood zone but still pay rates for stopbanks, were nervous about the deal.
“Maybe it will be acceptable to pay $500 a year to protect Franz Josef infrastructure that makes the village liveable. We all wait with great expectation to see if the council has come up with something sensible."
The most sensible thing in his view, would be to get rid of some stopbanks and let the river go to the south, away from Franz Josef.
That would mean sacrificing some south bank farms that are under repeated attack from the rampaging river, whose bed grows higher by the year as rocks tumble down from a retreating glacier.
But if nothing changed, Franz Josef’s sewerage ponds would have to be moved away from the river, costing an estimated $10 million, Haugh said.
“If we could release the river to the south, not only do we save the cost of a stop bank loan, we’d actually save the $10m cost of having to build a new sewerage plant.”
The regional council’s core business was building and maintaining stopbanks, Haugh said, and several councillors had experience in the associated industries.
“That’s their thing. They’re very good at it, but I wonder if they’d ever make a pitch to the government to actually get rid of a stopbank?”
With the government’s $6 million and the ratepayers’ $4m, the lower Waiho farms could be bought up at valuation, and the river let go, ultimately saving money for the government and ratepayers, Haugh said.
Figures provided by the regional council show a valuation of just over $13m for 26 lower Waiho rateable properties.
But the regional council told Franz Josef ratepayers last month that the government grant and loan money cannot be used for that purpose.
Adam Haugh is not the only one urging a rethink.
Business man Logan Skinner, a north bank representative on the council’s Franz Josef Special Rating District’s joint committee, says the stop banks have a design life of just 10 years.
Asking a small ratepayer base to take on a $4m debt for a temporary solution to protect about 30 south bank properties makes little economic sense, he said.
“The stop banks might last longer – or they could be swept away or damaged sooner – and what do we do then? Go back to the government and say ‘Please sir can we have some more'?"
The original 10-year ‘hold the line’ approach was based on a buyout happening, but that had now been scrapped with no alternative long-term plan in place, Skinner said.
Another Franz Josef ratepayer, Ian Hartshorne said north bank residents would foot most of the bill for the south-side stopbanks.
The south and north banks previously had separate rating districts, but at the government’s insistence they were combined last year.
“Now we’re all back into a joint venture, the town’s going to pay for most of it – over 90% of the bill - because the properties on the south side are pretty worthless.”
Westland mayor Helen Lash says the south bank properties are worth a lot more than $13-million including some very productive farms and cutting them loose would devastate the community.
“If you lose the south side, you lose about 40 residents from Franz Josef. You lose kids at the school, and some key players in the real community. On the north, it’s mainly the tourist businesses.
“We know the south side people bought there because the land was at risk and cheaper, but they’ve invested heavily in their properties and they’re the heart of the Franz Josef community."
One day the river would have its way and take out the Waiho flats, the mayor agreed.
"But as Minister Shane Jones has told us, there’s no money in world that could cover the cost of relocating the number of New Zealand townships that were built in volatile places.
“If they did it here, they’d have to do it everywhere. A buy-out is just not on the government’s table."
Meanwhile, the big conversation that should be happening about a long-term plan for Franz Josef has been once again kicked for touch, the mayor says.
“If we’re buying time by building stopbanks, what for? What are we going to do with that time to somehow secure a future for those south side residents?
“That is the plan we should be working on with the government and I think it’s clear our Westland district council will have to lead it.”
*LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
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Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
Ryman Healthcare has won the Canstar Blue 2024 award for Most Satisfied Customers in Retirement Villages in what is a first for the company.
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By local democracy reporter Lois Williams,
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has lifted the abatement notice it served on the owners of a private dump near Greymouth, saying it now meets national standards for a landfill.
But Grey mayor Tania Gibson says the Taylorville Resource … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams,
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has lifted the abatement notice it served on the owners of a private dump near Greymouth, saying it now meets national standards for a landfill.
But Grey mayor Tania Gibson says the Taylorville Resource Park – sited directly above the intake for Greymouth’s water supply - is still a disaster waiting to happen and should be closed.
“If there’s a major slip or an earthquake - it doesn’t bear thinking about what would happen. The enormity of this keeps being played down,” she said.
EPA investigators issued an abatement notice on the dump’s owners after they found it was leaching contaminated water from an unlined sediment pond.
The authority was asked by the West Coast Regional Council to step in as an independent investigator after the Grey District Council challenged the WCRC’s handling of resource consents for hazardous waste at the site.
The EPA’s investigations manager, Jackie Adams, said the extensive work needed to bring the landfill up to national standards has now been done.
“[Taylorville Resource Park] had to empty the existing pond and build a new, lined storage facility.
“This has now been completed and recent water samples taken from the area show that contaminated water is no longer being discharged from the site.”
The EPA’s investigation was now concluded and its intervention was at an end, Adams said.
“Ongoing regulation and monitoring of the site remain the responsibility of the regional council."
But Gibson said her council was a long way from being convinced the Taylorville site is safe.
Although the Grey District council had issued the original subdivision consents for the landfill, it had not been informed when the Regional Council had consented it for hazardous waste, the mayor said.
“We were not considered an affected party – unbelievable. We’ve got tonnes of toxic material - building materials, coal tar, paint, sitting directly above our public water intake that supplies 10,500 people, schools, hospitals."
The Grey District Council would continue paying for additional independent tests of its water which came from a bore at the Taylorville site above the Grey River, Gibson said.
So far tests had not found unsafe levels of any potentially harmful substances in the town’s water.
“But we will keep paying for tests – if anything happens we want to be able to say as a council that we did everything we could to prevent it.”
Taylorville Resource Park has been approached for comment.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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