P.M. rejects call for canal inquiry

Press, 22 September 1981, Page 3

P.M. rejects call for canal inquiry

PA Wellington The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) yesterday rejected demands of farmers and the Tauranga County Council for a public inquiry into the breaching of the Ruahihi canal, north-west of Tauranga, on Sunday. The breaching of the canal, which carries water from Lake McLaren to the Ruahihi hydro-electric power station on the banks of the Wairoa River, caused millions of litres of water and mud to flood surrounding farmland.

The canal was breached only hours after Mr Muldoon had officially opened the Ruahihi power station, which was the last to be built in the Tauranga Joint Generation Committee's $42 million scheme, which was begun in 1969.

Mr Muldoon said after a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday that there would be no public inquiry into the incident but that there would be an engineering investigation.

The incident was discussed at a meeting of the Tauranga County Council yesterday morning.

The county chairman. Mr E. E. Barrett, said it was widely known that a spring problem existed in the area of the canal and that nearby residents had been assured that the matter was under close study. It was clear that

there had been "some major error or miscalculation." Cr A. W. Jensen said that Ruahihi residents, had publicly voiced their fears about the canal’s safety for some time but had received a generally unsympathetic response from the joint generation committee.

He said, "They (the residents) were not engineering experts but they were able to detect seepage and see shifts in the canal base taking place before them." Cr A. G. Spratt said that the canal’s failure threw into doubt the ability of engineers to control big movements in the light soils of the district. He said, “It also brings into question the adequacy of existing controls over large scale land recontouring in the high country. There must be a major inquiry into the disaster and large-scale land movements generally in this region."

A Ruahihi resident, Mr Jim Ewart, whose house in Ruahihi Road overlooks the site of the breaching, said that local residents had feared that something might happen after cracks had appeared beside the canal earlier this year.

A group of residents met 10 days ago to discuss the cracks and the power scheme generally. A farmer, Mr Roddy Scott, said that it had not been a

case of whether trouble would occur but when it would happen. Another resident. Mr Graham Dyer, said that residents had almost made a protest march at the opening of the canal on Saturday. The joint generation committee yesterday retained a consultant to conduct an inquiry into the failure of the canal. The consulting engineers on the project, Worley, Downey, Mandeno have also been asked to report on the incident.

The chairman of the committee, Mr I. D. Lees, said that the committee aimed to have the Ruahihi station generating again by no later than June, 1982.

Repairs would probably be made by bypassing the damaged section of canal by extending big underground concrete pipes which carried water from the canal to the penstocks. He believed that seepage from the canal had turned the ground into a sponge and it had collapsed, taking the man-made parts of the canal with it. A spring which had appeared earlier in the area of the collapse had been monitored but because it had run clear, with no silt, it was believed that had it not scoured through from the canal.

Damage to the canal was estimated to cost $5 million.