Waimak. rock groynes plan recommended

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 9

Waimak. rock groynes plan recommended

Four new rock groynes costing' $545,000 may begin to be constructed soon on the north bank of the Wairnakariri River to prevent erosion. The North Canterbury

Catchment Board’s operations committee recommended yesterday that the groynes be built at a site of active erosion near the Eyrewell State Forest. The board’s rivers and ■ drainage engineer, Mr R. E. Reid, said in a report to the committee that trees planted in the area had failed to stop erosion. A pine plantation was under immediate threat from erosion, and beyond that intensively farmed land might be at risk. The four groynes would be 60 metres to 220 metres long, and willow trees would be planted between them, said Mr Reid. Construction would begin this financial year, and would take two years, delaying completion of the Waimakariri River improvement scheme until 1988-89. Spray damage The operations committee heard that a farmer's tree protection on his Waiau River frontage was damaged by helicopter weedicide spraying. Mr L. Dickson’s willow trees at Spotswood were damaged in mid-January after spray drifted on to them from a helicopter spraying gorse on nearby Crown land. Mr Dickson’s protection planting had been subsidised by the Catchment Board. The trees show signs of regrowth, and Mr Dickson will now not proceed with planned legal action against the spraying contractor. The board’s operations manager, Mr B. D. Dwyer, said the board would support Mr Dickson if damage turned out to be substantial. This would not be apparent until next spring. Water right fees The board may soots begin charging applicants and objectors for water rights in an effort to recover a share of its cost in processing and investigating applications. The resources committee recommended that the board adopt a draft schedule of water right application fees prepared by the resource management manager, Mr R. W. Cathcart. The fees would be in

the form of a deposit, lodged on application, which would be wholly or partially refundable once the board’s costs had been deducted. The recommended deposits were: $75 to replace a previously granted right where no field investigation was required; $l5O for small dams, diverts, takes from surface water and stormwater discharges; $3OO for larger dams, diverts, takes from surface and ground water and waste discharges; and $5OO (or special category applications for such rights as community sewage schemes and main irrigation schemes. The board also recommended that a fee of $2O accompany all objections to water right applications. The schedule of fees and deposits for applications and objections would be reviewed in June, 1985. The board expects to recover $169,000 of its costs with the introduction of the fees, compared with an estimated $lB,OOO last year. Landfill approved The resources committee recommended that the landfill refuse disposal site at Bottle Lake plantation in Waimairi be allowed to go ahead. The committee recommended dispensation be granted to Christchurch City Council to proceed with the landfill after a report from the board’s resource investigations manager, Mr M. J. Bowden. The report said groundwater users were not at risk from the landfill site, and the distance of the first stage of the proposed landfill from the beach would provide reasonable leachate control. The Christchurch Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee believed the site, design and management of the landfill site would avoid pollution of underground water. Several conditions were attached to the recommended granting of the dispensation. Among these were that no refuse be disposed of below expected maximum groundwater levels, no waste be discharged from the refuse site

to surface or coastal waters, and the dispensation expire after five years refuse disposal at the landfill site. The resources committee will ask two members of the refuse disposal committee who are investigating means of disposing of toxic wastes how their work is proceeding. Effluent discharge The board’s standing tribunal has recommended that treated effluent from a piggery at Rakaia be allowed to be discharged from an anaerobic pond on to farmland. The tribunal recommended that L. S. and V. E. Bell be allowed to discharge the effluent over the objection of Ashburton County Council, which claimed that contamination of the groundwater would pollute the town supply wells. Evidence presented at the hearing by Mr R. van Bentum, an agricultural engineer with the Ministry of Agriculture, said construction proposals for the anaerobic pond ensured the pond would be sealed off. A member of the hearing panel, Dr A. J. Sutherland, said the application was recommended subject to several conditions, including that effluent applications not exceed 50m at any time. Artesian well The board’s groundwater group is attempting to find at least 100 bores in the Christchurch city area to measure artesian pressures, and wants to hear from residents who have wells on their properties. The resource committee’s chairman, Mr O. J. Osborne, said it was hoped publicity in the next week would encourage residents to approach the board so it could survey their wells.