John Bostock
Submissions for and against a water conservation order (WCO) on the full length of the Ngaruroro and Clive rivers closed on August 24.
The main driver, funders and expertise behind the WCO application are Fish and Game New Zealand.
The application has angered and upset the HB community for four reasons.
Firstly it cuts across an existing consultative process called TANK which Fish and Game were party to.
Secondly the application is sloppy and fails to consider the benefits or harm such a WCO will cause.
Thirdly the application seeks to raise the trigger level of the low flow irrigation ban and even more drastically links all "hydraulically connected" water to the Ngaruroro. If successful this WCO would adversely affect every water user on the Heretaunga plains.
Lastly the application actually prevents measures to improve the quality and quantity of water in the lower reaches of the river. If successful, the application puts at risk all those living and working in the path of future floods by preventing any improvement in flood protection.
The TANK process includes a wide range of interested parties including Iwi, scientists, HB Regional Council, HB District Health Board, Hastings District and Napier City Councils, farmers, croppers, orchardists, Fish and Game, Forest and Bird, dairy industry, grape growers, foresters, Ngati Kahungunu Inc and other stake holders.
The process has sought to gain genuine consensus by understanding each other's point of view. The input has been rigorous utilising the most up-to-date science.
It has been a long journey, however progress has been significant in finding common ground. A solution with goodwill and genuine dialogue is likely to be far more sustainable than an imposed solution won through the courts using the most expensive lawyers.
In stark contrast head office Fish and Game New Zealand have decided to cut across the entire project at this late stage and are seeking to impose a radical and ridiculous WCO over the entire Ngaruroro and Clive River to the sea.
The WCO application is poorly researched and not well thought out. I suspect Fish and Game are either 'gaming" the WCO process or don't understand the consequences of their application.
For example, by linking river water to any hydraulically connected 'take" puts at risk all wells on the Heretaunga plains. Recent science is very clear about the hydraulic connectivity across the Hastings area and has resulted in a hold imposed by HBRC on all new consents on the plains.
Further by raising the low flow from 2400 litres per second to 4200 will ensure water bans are in place for most of the summer in dry years without understanding the marginal benefit and massive cost to our community.
The WCO will prevent improvement to the quality and quantity of water in the river by making it impossible to make improvements through augmentation or change of land use to more environmentally friendly options. For example, Bostock New Zealand has been actively looking at options for small-scale privately funded dams off main stem to take winter flow water and release it down the river for augmentation in the summer.
This water would be used to convert dairy farmland close to the river to organic apple production instead, resulting in lower nutrient loss and less sedimentation.
Further the WCO is reckless in freezing any improvement or repairs to flood protection on the lower reaches of the Ngaruroro River. Flood protection is essential for the safety and security of all people living and working on the plains.
Bostock New Zealand is a passionate conservator and wants to preserve and enhance all our water bodies. The company is not opposed to a conservation order on appropriate stretches of the Ngaruroro River after real local consultation and consensus reached. The company and HB people will resist solutions unilaterally imposed against their will by outsiders.
A tractor march planned for mid-September to show the depth of feeling against the WCO will be supported by Bostock New Zealand.
Let HB people decide how best to preserve and enhance our rivers!
John Bostock is the managing director and owner of Bostock New Zealand. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz