I welcome Greater Wellington's announcement of an $80k investment to remove 3000 cubic meters of wet gravel from the
Waikanae River in the vicinity of the Expressway bridge. The rationale that this will reduce the risk of flooding on
neighbouring properties is a prudent one. What has not been highlighted is that this will prevent this material
eventually moving further downstream to adversely affect the vulnerable ecology of the Waikanae Estuary Scientific
Reserve.
I would hasten to alert GW regional council and DOC that this announcement will, without a doubt, trigger calls by
others, and especially the vocal Waikanae Estuary Whitebaiters Network, for similar work to remove the gravel and
sedimentation at the mouth of the river. The Network has long argued that this build up plugs the mouth and increases
the potential for flooding upstream. They have argued that this build up has continued to degrade the environmental
quality and biodiversity of the Estuary which is a classified Scientific Reserve deserving very high protection.
The project is jointly funded by NZTA, M2PP Alliance and GW because the build up is directly related to the widening for
the Expressway bridge in 2016. I welcome the removal of the 3000 tonnes of upstream material as that will mean this
material will not move, over many years, downstream to further damage the Estuary.
Given the consenting process, which would have needed DoC support, has successfully resulted in this project going ahead
the question raised by the Whitebaiters Network remains to be answered. They have said that since 2007 discussions
between GW and DOC to remove wet gravel from the Estuary area has not succeeded. Given this week's announcement will GW
and Doc review the situation at the Estuary?