Ashburton Zone Committee meet for the first time in 2015

The Ashburton Zone Committee will meet for its first regular monthly meeting of 2015 to discuss local water management issues on Tuesday 27 January.

The committee will begin the meeting with an update from the Hinds Drains Working Party. The core task of this group is to assist the zone committee to develop recommendations on minimum flows and surface water allocation for the water bodies in the lower Hinds Plains.

At the meeting the working party will present its recommendations to the full committee for consideration to be presented to Environment Canterbury. The working party is also investigating options such as Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) and it hopes to work with Ashburton District Council as it investigates more efficient ways of delivering stock water to users. The committee will also receive an update on MAR at the meeting.

MAR is a set of tools designed to purposely recharge clean water to underlying aquifers for the enhancement and protection of water resource quality and quantity. The zone committee has been looking at a wide range of options to help manage water quality and quantity in the Hinds Plains catchment and its ZIP recommends water augmentation, including MAR, be further explored to help manage declining water quality and quantity conditions at the catchment level.

The pilot project is well underway and consenting for the project and final design work is expected to be completed in early February 2015, with operations to commence from March to April 2015.

Next, the zone committee will turn its attention to Immediate Steps biodiversity funding. The Immediate Steps programme aims for the protection of ecosystems and habitats to conserve indigenous freshwater biodiversity. There are also opportunities for assistance to remove barriers to fish moving up and down a waterway. Zone committees decide the priorities for each zone and distribute the funding and at Tuesday’s meeting the committee will consider a local project that aims to fence and plant a margin along a local stream to protect biodiversity and water quality values.

To date, the committee has approved more than $300,000 in Immediate Steps funding. There is still around $200,000 available so if you have a project that could benefit from Immediate Steps funding search Immediate Steps at www.ecan.govt.nz or phone Environment Canterbury on 0800 324 636. To date twenty three projects have been approved by the zone committee

Following this, the committee will have a discussion on its draft five-year outcomes for Environment Canterbury’s land-use and water management programme in the zone. The key outcomes focus on sensitive lakes zones, Hinds Drains management, Managed Aquifer Recharge, and on-farm efficiency.

The committee will finish the meeting with updates on the Ashburton River flow, the current state of rivers and lakes in the Ashburton District, and irrigation restrictions.

The Ashburton Zone Committee is a joint committee of the Ashburton District Council and Environment Canterbury. The Ashburton zone extends from the Rakaia River to the Rangitata River and includes Ashburton, Rakaia and Methven.

ENDS

© Scoop Media