By WAYNE THOMPSON
The many big projects planned for open land in the Upper Waitemata Harbour catchment, including converting the Hobsonville air base, are raising fears of worsening harbour pollution.
The fears could force the Auckland Regional Council to call for a breather on releasing more land for housing and industry.
Its staff say they want 18 months to find out how the upper harbour can cope with the effects of projects which are either at advanced planning stages or proposed.
Senior regional planner Geoff Winn said the effects could be assessed and remedies worked out with the help of a computer modelling study.
This was done for Okura and Whitford, sensitive catchments which also drain to the Hauraki Gulf.
Such a study would cost between $700,000 and $900,000.
Officers from local councils and Transit New Zealand were to meet to discuss what needed to be done.
Mr Winn said the main concerns were for the health of marine life and harbour waters as a result of extra discharges of sediment, toxic contaminants and nutrients, and modifications to feeder streams.
The upper harbour was already afflicted with the nuisance of phytoplankton blooms.
Mr Winn said two previous studies - in 1976 and 1984 - showed the upper harbour was poorly flushed by the tides and sensitive to pollution and build-up of contaminants.
It drained areas of Waitakere and North Shore Cities and Rodney district, where development had already affected the upper harbour estuary.
North Shore had major developments still to come in the Albany basin and Greenhithe peninsula.
Waitakere hot spots for new housing were identified in the Regional Growth Strategy as Redhills, Westgate and Hobsonville.
Rodney expected urban growth at Riverhead, a residential aviation park at Dairy Flat, and a policy of allowing more homes to be built in the countryside.
The study should also take into account the effect of earthworks for State Highway 18, which will run through the upper harbour catchment to link the Northern and Northwestern Motorways.
Pollution fears in harbour projects
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