RIVER EROSION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22935, 13 January 1938, Page 10

RIVER EROSION

LNEOADS AT OPOTIKI LARGE AREA THREATENED PROTECTION PLANS DISCUSSED rBV TELECRAPH—OWX CORRESPONDENT] OPOTIKI, Wednesday A special meeting of the Opotiki Borough Council considered the question of the serious erosion of approximately half a mile of the west bank of the Otara River, which threatens to cut off a large area of valuable land at the northern end of the borough. An estimate and plan for preventing further encroachment were considered. Three groynes were built some years ago, but these have become dilapidated, and the river has now claimed seven acres of land in the borough and is rapidly approaching the stopbank. It was recommended in the report that the erosion would be most economically arrested bv relieving the bank with a matting through planting saplings. The wooden groynes would be open to reduce the velocity of flow and could be extended to divert the river to its original course. The recommendations included the reconstruction of the three present groynes and the construction of 17 additional groynes, also the planting of silver poplars and lupins. The estimated cost of the groyne work was £'.'sooo. Later a training wall or breast wall of rubble, following the line of the outside piles, could be built. It was decided to refer the matter to the Public Works Department, with a request for a contribution toward the cost, also suggesting an alternative scheme of purchasing under the Public Works Act seven acres on the opposite bank and cutting a channel through if that scheme would prove less expensive.