Water supply and environmental problems in the Lauder Creek area in Central Otago have attracted recent media attention and were raised by councillors at a recent Otago Regional Council meeting. John Gibb investigates some of the issues.
Anxieties over water issues in the Lauder Creek area are rising, and have surfaced in recent discussions at the Otago Regional Council.
Some of the worries of the Lauder Creek community, northeast of Omakau,
include the creek drying out for some time during the past two summers, and the recent loss of bore water supply for a household in the area.
Cr Graeme Bell, of Alexandra, asked at a recent council meeting if the council could show further leadership over the Lauder water issues.
He said in a later interview he had been phoned anonymously by several water users in the area who had concerns.
Cr Gerry Eckhoff said he had also been contacted, and he acknowledged there were concerns about bores running dry in the area, and irrigation-related matters.
The meeting heard that the council was looking in to the matters raised, with a view to offering constructive help.
Council deputy chairwoman Gretchen Robertson told the meeting there was a strong case for a community water group to be established in the area, and that the council could play a constructive role in helping that to happen.
It was ‘‘always valuable for people to get together'', to talk matters through and ‘‘find an understanding'' of the bigger issues and ‘‘each other's perspectives'', Cr Robertson said in an interview.
Such an approach would improve communication and improve overall water management in the wider community interest, she said.
She noted that the Upper Taieri Resource Management Group, which involves more than 150 water users, was one of a series of successful community water groups.
The Upper Taieri Group also includes farmer representatives, and several other representatives, including of the Department of Conservation, and Fish and Game Otago.
Several key wider water issues also facing some other parts of rural Otago have also recently be highlighted by rising concerns over water issues in Lauder.
These include:
●Worries that some residents are running out of water, including one resident whose bore recently ran dry and could face the prospect of having to buy an expensive water tank.
●Concerns over fragmentation of water use and perspectives, and the need for a fairer and more community-oriented, holistic approach, through developing a community water group.
●Concerns about traditional mining-related water permits and the need to switch to a more modern water consents, under the Resource Management Act, by 2021, given that the Lauder Creek, a tributary of the Manuherikia, ran dry last summer.
●Worries about delays in resolving water issues before 2021, and how some water users are operating, including that some could be trying to establish a record of extensive water use, to put them in a stronger position in deciding the amount of water granted in a new consent.
●Concerns about whether more modern and ‘‘efficient'' irrigation methods, including the use of spray-style pivot irrigation, could be starving some shallow bores of water needed by some householders.
Keith Vette, who manages a 140ha farm in the Lauder Creek area, said that farm did not draw its water from the Lauder Creek.
But he was concerned about the loss of amenity and environmental values when the creek dried out, as it had for some time over the past two summers.
Mr Vette said his children enjoyed swimming and catching fish in the creek, which was an attractive waterway which had seldom dried out completely in the past. He was concerned that some residents' previously reliable bores had dried out.
Asked if establishing a community water group was a good idea, Mr Vette said that would be a positive move, ‘‘if it's going to help the creek keep running'', and noted that such groups had worked well elsewhere.
Recent publicity about Lauder Creek water flow issues had resulted in an overnight increase in the creek water level, and more efforts, including by the ORC, were needed to protect the creek, he said.
In a report tabled at the recent council meeting, council chief executive Peter Bodeker said recently that there had been ‘‘publicity about creeks and bores that had previously been charged by irrigation run-off drying off''.
‘‘The basis for the replacement of deemed permits with RMA [Resource Management Act] consents is that water use, including the carriage of water across the property, will be at the industry best practice.
‘‘This will inevitably lead to more efficient irrigation and reduced run-off.''
But less run-off was likely to ‘‘reduce the recharge of aquifers'', as had been reported in the Lauder Creek area, he said.‘‘Affected water users will need to work with the rest of the community to ensure their water needs are considered when group applications are made, '' he said.
