A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
The Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) trial on the Poverty Bay Flats was discussed in a recent Stuff article that described MAR as “the new buzz phrase in the search for answers to New Zealand’s twin problems of increasingly scarce water and weed-choked rivers toxic enough to kill fish”, while notingthat critics say it could actually worsen water pollution problems.
Another MAR trial is taking place in the Hinds catchment on the Canterbury plains, and recharges are also being considered for Hawke’s Bay’s Ruataniwha aquifer and Wairarapa’s Ruamahanga valley.
New Zealand’s first MAR was actually established in Hawke’s Bay’s Heretaunga aquifer in 1988, drawing water from the Ngaruroro River. It was abandoned 20 years later, due to clogging issues and the discovery that water was leaking back into the river.
Waikato University professor of freshwater science Troy Baisden told Stuff that while MAR could dilute contaminants and improve water reliability for higher-value, lower-polluting agriculture, it also created “pretty extreme opportunities to make water quality worse, by putting more agriculture in places that are already in danger of exceeding ecological and possibly health levels of contaminants like nitrate”.
It was environmental concerns and a deep cultural objection to the mixing of widely different waters that led Rongowhakaata to lodge objections last year to Gisborne District Council’s application to vary consent conditions for its stage two MAR trial. Consent was granted three months later, with a condition that the council engage with Rongowhakaata Iwi Trust to develop a cultural impact assessment.
An update on the trial for councillors last week said regular meetings and “positive discussions” were being held with the iwi.
The stage two trial has a total budget of $1.153 million, with $162,000 coming from the council, $449,000 from Eastland Community Trust and $542,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund.
The injection trial is planned to start at the end of August, with science studies continuing “to support the trial and understand potential impacts”. A project manager has been appointed and starts on Tuesday next week.
