River cut scheduled for 28 June 2018, meeting notes

Notes, not minutes, from a meeting held Wednesday 27 June 2018 at 1000 in Hank Edwards Reserve.

A dozen people attended, including several Committee members and Paul Arcus, Engineer with Horizons Regional Council.

Points that were raised and answered by various people:

• Contractor will need to fix vehicle access to get machinery down for the cut.
• Council discussions with Miratanas to make that access more permanent
• Funding for more rocks is tricky as it’s very costly
• Replanting etc also adds costs
• More rocks could be a longer-term solution
• Ohau Drainage Scheme Review could include our rocks
• Ohau Drainage Scheme Review is scheduled for financial year starting after the next one
• Funding for the Cut comes from both Councils
• This is a one-off Cut
• Need regular funding
• Need a regular allocation of funding
• Current Ohau scheme finishes up-river of our footbridge
• How can we get scheme extended? Part of upcoming review.
• What about maintaining the groyne as per consent? Consent simply says how Cut can be done not that it must be done.
• Regular monitoring stopped by previous Council as too costly. They told us it was our job to monitor need for Cut.
• Last Cut about 3 years ago
• Richard Hammond can get 6 ton blocks that are 3 metres long. Concrete barriers from motorway. Could we use them?
• Aesthetic values need to be considered
• Blocks will cover with sand or shingle
• Last groyne had to be dug quite far down to prevent undermining
• Existing leftover rocks are doing nothing useful
• Boulders could be a foundation for retaining / restoring sand along coastline
• One suggestion is retaining wall of tires. Won’t work for environmental reasons. Resource consent also wouldn’t be granted
• Rodney has lost 4 metres of land to erosion
• Current boulders have lasted well
• There are lots of ideas for how to retain / restore coastline
• Sand lost in a big storm a year or two ago has come back
• We do get accretion so fixing groyne could be a longer-term solution
• Funding is the barrier to more action
• We want solutions soon, not to be waiting a year or two
• If Cut lost again could apply again for funding
• Can we make a vehicle access to beach in Strathnaver? Land is currently Recreation Reserve so would need zoning change. It’s a Council matter
• Want access from Strathnaver as emergency access for when Manga Pirau Street vehicle access can’t be used
• Horowhenua District Council told us many Acts and Consultations to work through to put tracks through Strathnaver
• One suggestion: individuals could just remove bollards and use Strathnaver track without telling Council. It was pointed out neighbours would object. Response: that doesn’t matter; there are more than us than of them.
• Dam made of large driftwood could help maybe to keep river on new track
• Law says can’t take logs off beach, not that they can’t be moved around.
• Boulders are very expensive — where does money come from?

Work on the Cut starts tomorrow (Thursday, 28 June 2018) at 7.30 am:

1. High tide is good
2. Cut channel and follow water down as it’s going out
3. Block stream
4. Dig channel small but water will ream it out
5. Material removed will be put on downstream side and compacted
6. In other cuts elsewhere wind blown material fills old channel
7. Needs to be monitored. Consent says monitoring over next 2 months.

The meeting closed at 1050

Extra question: who takes responsibility for our polluted river?