River controls offer certainty

Stephen Woodhead
Stephen Woodhead
Guidelines for management of the Kauru River in North Otago will give users and its community some certainty, Otago Regional Council engineering and hazards committee chairman Stephen Woodhead says.

The council has outlined an approach for dealing with resource consent applications to extract gravel and flood risk management for the river, which is a major tributary of the Kakanui River.

Gravel from the river was continually sought after from commercial operators.

However, the Department of Conservation had concerns about the extraction of gravel and its effect on the habitat of the native lowland longjaw galaxiid, which was categorised as a ‘‘nationally critical'' threatened freshwater fish species.

There was also a risk to farmland from flooding of the river.

The new management regime, endorsed by the committee, meant only minor and selective
extraction of gravel from the Kauru would be allowed if it could be shown it was a necessary for erosion and flood risk management.

‘‘It will give the locals some certainty.''

No more than 5000cu m of gravel could be extracted in any one year. For the past 35 years, the average annual gravel extraction volume was roughly estimated to be 16,000c m.

Gravel extraction would be allowed from Kauru Hill Rd bridge to the confluence with the Kakanui River and would focus on skimming from islands within the river to maintain the native lowland longjaw galaxiid's habitat.

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