Crisis in Geyserland: Rotorua reaches point of no return

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 21

Crisis in Geyserland: Rotorua reaches point of no return

Can Rotorua continue as a tourist resort based on a geothermal wonderland and fresh lakes? Or must it become a dead wasteland with its lakes drowned in sewage? OLIVER RIDDELL looks at the issues for one of New Zealand’s most important tourist attractions.

“New Zealand’s last remaining concentration of geysers may face extinction if the present rates of. draw-off from the Rotorua geothermal field continue,” according to the country’s foremost authority on the subject.

Professor Ron Keane of Auckland University is convener of the geothermal subcommittee of the Geological Society and coauthor of a report, “The Preservation of Hydrothermal System Features of Scientific and Other Interest.”

He warns that not only is Rotorua reaching the end of the road, but that other geothermal fields at present exempt from drilling might be open to exploitation under the Ministry of Energy’s new geothermal policy.

In the 19505, New Zealand had about 130 active geysers; today there are 12, and five of them are at Whakarewarewa, on the outskirts of Rotorua. Professor Ream has documented the decline of the geysers and fears that those left may soon become extinct.

Since May this year there has been a noticeable decline in both geyser and spring activity in Rotorua, he says.

Fluctuating geyser activity is not uncommon, especially in the winter when there is greater draw-off from the field. But the simultaneous decline of both geysers and springs suggests that what has happened this year is

more than just a seasonal variation.

The pressure in the geyser system controls the level of Te Horu Basin, a large oscillating pool beside Pohutu Geyser. The average level of Te Horu has been declining markedly in recent years.

Once its average level falls below that, of nearby Puarenga Stream, cold water from the stream would be able to enter the geyser system and that would almost certainly spell the end of the Whakarewarewa geysers — the main tourist attraction of the Rotorua area and the one its big hotels are built beside.

Efforts are being made to monitor the level of Te Horu. Once the relative levels of the stream and Te Horu are established, this should indicate how close the geysers are to extinction.

It is the juxtaposition of two factors in Rotorua that has finally persuaded the Government to act. The city’s tourist industry would be devastated without the geysers, as everyone in Rotorua will admit; and hotel and motel proprietors, and the Rotorua District council representing the local public, are bitterly opposed to any action to restrict draw-off of geothermal energy outside Whakarewarea.

The people of Rotorua want to have their cake and eat it. They want overseas visitors to come but they do not want to restrict their own geothermal drawoff. The Government has adopted

a five-point plan to save the field from extinction:—

1. It will revoke the powers delegated to the Rotorua District Council to manage the geothermal field and vest them in the Ministry of Energy.

2. Government agencies using energy from the field will be required to take immediate steps to change to other sources. 3. There will be a total shutdown for the summer of all geothermal bores within a I.skm radius of Pohutu, starting on December 1.

The Government wants a “drastic reduction” in draw-off. It must meet the level D.S.I.R. scientists decide is needed “to eliminate the risk of the geysers’ dying,” and not just to reduce the risk. The only bores allowed in the area will be those for which the Ministry of Energy is satisfied that no practical alternative source is immediately available.

4. A licensing and charging regime will be instituted after April 1 next year for the whole of the Rptorua metropolitan area, to be run by the Ministry of Energy. Only people with efficient bores will be licensed; all other bores will be closed. Prices will be used as the mechanism to conserve the field. 5. Loans to help users to change to other energy sources will be made available where there is individual financial need. The announcement of this package was greeted by howls of protest from Rotorua. It was described locally as being unnecessary, unfair, unrealistic, and based on ignorance. It is

open to the charge that it deals more harshly with private bore owners than with the biggest user by far — the State. Yet the possible imminent extinction of the geothermal field is not the only problem clouding Rotorua’s future as an international tourist resort. There is another equally intractable threat — to the lakes.

For years everyone knew that Lake Rotorua was a dying lake because it had weed but no fish. This was a natural consequence of the runoff from the surrounding hills of nitrates and superphosphates, and the discharge of untreated and semi-treated sewage.

It still has no fish, but so great is the pollution in it that the weeds have also died.

Lake Rotorua may have passed the point of no return and already be a “dead lake.” The pollution from its waters is now killing Lake Rotoiti next door and beginning to affect nearby Lakes Rotoehu and Rotoma. Rotorua has tried to deal with its sewage problem and has failed. This time it is taking the initiative and asking the Government to choose between three options.— . • Piping semi-treated sewage to the Kaituna River and flushing it into the Bay of Plenty; • Compulsorily acquiring nearby Maori land to spread the sewage;

• Paying for very expensive further sewage processing facilities.

None of the options has much appeal. The Waitangi Tribunal has already rejected the first, on protests from coastal Maoris; no neighbouring Maori landowner has agreed yet to provide land for the second; while the third will be very expensive. Yet the cost of doing nothing will include more dead lakes and fewer tourists.

Fluctuating activity

Conflict of interests

Loans will be available