Rakaia protection now considered

Press, 14 June 1983, Page 3

Rakaia protection now considered

Parliamentary reporter A result on the application for a National Water Conservation Order over the Rakaia River is unlikely for some months yet. The New Zealand Acclimatisation Societies applied for the order to the Minister of Works and Development, Mr Friedlander, last Friday.

The societies seek to retain the upper waters in their “natural” state, the middle reaches downstream to the Rakaia Gorge in their “existing” state, and to allocate the water on the lower reaches. The Minister will now decide, on advice from the Water and Soil Division of the Ministry, whether the application contains enough information for a decision to be made.

If it does the application will be referred to the National Water and Soil Conservation...... Authority which will discuss the terms of the application with all interested parties.

In the region,. these will include the Canterbury United Council and the North Canterbury Catchment Board.

The application was considered by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council in Wellington yesterday, and will be considered by the Water Resources Council later in the week. ■" f '

...' The National Authority expects to be able to make a recommendation to the Minister by the first week in July. < • :

. The Rakaia can be protected under either a National Water Conservation Order or a Local Water Conservation .Notice — the former binds the Crown and the latter ; does not. ■

Once the Minister has decided which ■ process should be followed, the-'

securing of protection for the rights of everyone with an interest in the Rakaia River can be pursued. Anglers have been “grossly betrayed” by acclimatisation societies, according to the Rakaia River Association. By not seeking a full national conservation order on the river, the societies had "shirked their responsibilities” to their licence holders, said the association’s president, Mr B. H. Wynne-Williams yesterday. The societies’ application included the setting of a “one in five year daily minimum flow” of the river below the bridge in the Rakaia Gorge. “The river below the gorge is critical for fisheries and recreational aspects,” said Mr WynneWilliams. . Stabilised minimum flows would lead to the introduction of poaching practices, which were known to occur on other salmon rivers with reduced flows due to irrigation abstraction. “Serious questions must be asked of any acclimatisation society which purports to represent angler interests but which is seen to be dealing in river trade-offs with developers,” he said. The national executive director of Acclimatisation Societies, Mr Bryce Johnson, said yesterday that the average person would not even notice the difference between their minimum flow setting and the normal flow. “The order is very close to a full flow," he said. “We were aware at the outset that some groups would be upset by it, but we made the decision on the facWthat we had.

“It was the practical thing to do, based on the information that we had, and, in our view, we’ve still asked for quite a high flow,” he said.

The Rakaia River Association was “overreacting” on principal. Mr Johnson said that the order protected the interests of the societies, which were the fisheries and wildlife aspects of the river.

“Under the statutes, that is all we are entitled to base our submission on.”

The association represented a much more general interest in the river and covered all recreational aspects, “which is good and we need groups like that,” he said.

Under the regulations, the order would be open for public comment and the association would no doubt make their submissions.

“They will be expected to front up with their evidence, and if their case is strong, the order will swing their way,” said Mr Johnson.