Water Journal July/August 2023

Making room for water

Highlights from the 2023 Stormwater Conference

Building resilience in our environment and communities

Tackling nitrates in our water

Serving the New Zealand Water Industry since 1938.

Serving the New Zealand Water Industry since 1938.

Serving the New Zealand Water Industry since 1938. www.deeco.co.nz

Serving the New Zealand Water Industry since 1938. www.deeco.co.nz

President: Lorraine Kendrick

Board Members: Helen Atkins, Troy Brockbank, Fraser Clark, Tim Gibson, Lorraine Kendrick, Priyan Perera, Dr Deborah Lind, Shelley Wharton, Chief Executive: Gillian Blythe

Water Group Co-ordinator: Katrina Guy

Membership Administrator: Pip Donnelly

Technical Manager: Noel Roberts

Technical Advisor: Nicci Wood

Insight and Sustainability Advisor: Lesley Smith

Training Development Manager: Belinda Cridge

Communications Manager: Debra Harrington

Design and Marketing Coordinator: Ranya Adolf

Executive Administrator: Ali Bray

Bookkeeping and Administration assistant: Zoe Hubbard

OUR SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

Backflow

Climate Change

Smart Water Infrastructure

Modelling

Onsite Waste Water Management

Stormwater

Water Service Managers’ Group

WeCan

Young Water Professionals:

Chapters in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

For information contact:

Katrina Guy 04 495 0891, email: Katrina.guy@waternz.org.nz

WATER JOURNAL

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DISCLAIMER: Water New Zealand reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material submitted for publication. The opinions expressed in contributions to Water are not necessarily those of Water New Zealand. The information contained in this publication is given in good faith and has been derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, neither Water New Zealand, nor any person(s) involved in the preparation of this publication accept any form of liability whatsoever for its content including advertisements, editorials, opinions, advice or information. This extends to any consequences from its use. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or ink–jet printing without prior written permission of the publishers.

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Water is printed on environmentally responsible paper, sourced from PEFC certified fibre from sustainably managed and legally harvested forests, and manufactured under strict ISO 14001 environmental management systems

56 Antarctica’s deep ocean circulation is slowing down

58 Summer storms: The road to recovery

64 Life without access to clean water and hygiene

66 Innovative solutions to decontaminate water

76 New data management platform for Otago

78 New UBC water treatment zaps ‘forever chemicals’ for good

REGULARS AND COMMENT PIECES

22 Profile: Warren Bird

24 Profile: Murray Close

46 Water sector storm recovery, are we future proofed?

50 What will economic regulation mean for water service providers?

68 Going beyond the minimum to keep your water supply safe

74 Legal update

80 Navigating the water scarcity challenge in the desert

The official journal of Water New Zealand – New Zealand’s only water environment periodical. Established in 1958, Water New Zealand is a non-profit organisation.

‘Ka ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora nga tangata’

‘If the water is healthy, the land is healthy, the people are healthy’

Cover image: Atrina moored ‘outside’ mussel farm Site 2, the uppermost site in Manaia Harbour. Underwater, divers are collecting samples as part of a study to compare nitrogen removal, or denitrification, on the seafloor inside and outside mussel farms. See story on page 28. Photo, Emily Douglas, NIWA

Working together and future focused

Lorraine Kendrick President, Water New Zealand

Stormwater 2023 – what a relevant and timely conference we had in May in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. With almost 600 delegates, it was certainly a record breaker event.

There were so many thoughtful keynote addresses, technical presentations, and of course our plenary on the last day was a moving reminder of the human costs of flood events and the scale of the challenges facing us. The conference papers are now on our website so you can go back and check them out at any time that suits you.

Water New Zealand members will continue to work with our communities by showing leadership and providing their expertise to be smarter about where we build and to promote more naturebased solutions.

While flooding events may be top of mind, we know that climate change will hit the water sector hard in other ways. There will be challenges caused by drought, deterioration of water quality through increased incidence of algal blooms, salinity issues, changing water flows, as well as inundation of waste networks.

With such immense and far-reaching consequences, we know that we need a joined up visionary approach incorporating integrated catchment management and the entire water cycle.

As a sector we also need to reduce our own carbon emissions, and this is why our Water New Zealand Climate Change Special Interest Group produced the guide ‘Navigating to Net Zero –Aotearoa’s water sector low-carbon journey’. The group has been working hard to ensure the steps it outlined are not forgotten.

For those who missed the recent webinar, ‘Next Steps to NetZero’, this is available in the Resource Hub section of the Water New Zealand website. You can also download the guide from our website and keep an eye out for a future Climate Change SIG podcast series on next steps we can take to reduce our emissions.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Climate Change group, visit the Groups link on our website. Our groups provide an opportunity for our members to work and collaborate with each other to support initiatives across individual areas of interest and concern.

The Stormwater Conference certainly brought home to me the commitment and remarkable effort of so many of our members and others in the wider sector, here and internationally.

A lot of exciting progress is happening in the form of muchneeded new legislation and I urge you to share your knowledge and ideas as opportunities arise.

We’ve appreciated the time and input of members who have worked with us on our submissions on the many pieces of legislation being enacted this year, including the last piece of the revamped affordable water reforms – the Water Services Entities Amendment Bill which changes the Water Services Entities Act 2022 to replace four water services entities with 10.

We want to ensure that the new water-related legislation is workable to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient water services. And importantly, that we are future-focused.

The water reforms have been a catalyst for the critical changes needed to ensure a long-term sustainable future. And who better than those working in the industry to help guide that thinking?

We’re on the cusp of generational regulatory change and now more than ever, it’s vital that we look to the future.

So what is it that we need the water sector to look like by the middle of the century? How will we ensure we are well prepared for both the challenges and opportunities coming our way?

Many of you have already taken part in the discussions we have been having around our transformation vision for 2050. Thank you to everyone who gave their time and shared their knowledge at our various workshops, online events and interviews.

As a result of your input, we’ve produced ‘Towards 2050: Transformation vision for the water sector’ which has pulled together industry thoughts around key areas such as Te Mana o te Wai, capability and education, climate and environment, people and community as well as digital, planning and standards, and smart buying.

Valuing water and ushering in a major shift in the way we think about and manage water has been highlighted time and again through our discussions and is at the heart of our transformation vision.

We’ll be ready to share ‘Towards 2050: Transformation vision for the water sector’ very shortly so please keep an eye out –there’ll be plenty of opportunities for further discussion.

Transformation is a journey and continuing to come together to share ideas as a water community will be important.

Ka kite anō

Lorraine Kendrick President

Find out the latest thinking on innovation and technology, Te Mana o te Wai, partnerships, resilience, sustainability and much more. Take part in discussions, workshops and make new contacts and business opportunities while helping shape the future of the water sector in Aotearoa New Zealand.

If your interest is water, don’t miss this important conference. BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Find out more at waternzconference.org.nz

Revisions to fluoride guide now available

The second component of the two-part Good Practice Guidelines for Fluoridation of Water Supplies is now available on the Water New Zealand website.

Volume One of the guide, which is now formally published, specifies good practice for the safe design and effective operation of a fluoridation plant. This volume provides an update of the Code of Practice for Fluoridation of Drinking-Water Supplies in New Zealand, and supersedes it.

The revisions in the update capture

regulatory changes made since the previous code was published in 2014. Since that time the Health (Fluoridation) Amendment Act, new Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules, and establishment of the new drinking water regulator (Taumata Arowai), have significantly changed rules, roles, and responsibilities for fluoridation of drinking water supplies.

The Health Act grants the Director General of Health decision-making powers on community water fluoridation. Water suppliers will be required to fluoridate a water supply if directed to do so

by the Director General of Health. Those already fluoridating are required to continue to do so.

The revisions, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, have been led by Andrew Watson, Philip La Roche, and Sarah Burgess.

A second volume (previously released and detailed in the March/April '23 journal edition ) provides detailed design guidance, examples and operational information on the fluoridation of drinking water, including template designs.

Both volumes are available on the Water New Zealand website: waternz.org.nz/resourcehub.

New legislation gives effect to the Government’s changes to water services reform

In June, the final piece of legislation for the Government’s revamped affordable water reforms was introduced.

The Water Services Entities Amendment Bill changes the Water Services Entities Act 2022 to replace four water services entities with 10, allowing for greater community voice.

In a press release, the Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty says that having 10 rather than four entities means that every community is represented on the entitites’ regional groups.

He says that the amendments will still allow for the new entities to have the increased size necessary to improve access and affordability to water services.

“For example, we estimate the average water services charge for Waikato by 2054 without

reform would be $7660 per household. Under the 10-entity reform scenario we estimate it would be between $2760 and $3090.

“Other important changes in the Bill are a staggered and flexible approach to when the new entities go live, community priority statements to give a voice to local people with an interest in water bodies within the entity area and a process to enable voluntary mergers of the entities.”

Other key changes in the Bill include:

• A process for locally-led voluntary mergers between water services entities;

• A backstop financing option for water services entities, if required, to ensure they can borrow to invest in the delivery of water services;

• Arrangements to allow for shared services between water services entities to improve the provision of water services and ensure

affordability for customers.

Water New Zealand has made a submission on the legislation. It is available on our website.

The Bill also provides for Community Priority Statements, a new way for local people to have a say in how the new water services entities operate and their impact on local waterways.

The Government expects to pass the Water Services Entities Amendment Bill, the Water Services Legislation Bill, and the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill before the House rises for the General Election.

Find out more about the Water Services Entities Amendment Bill and other water services reform legislation at www.waterservicesreform.govt.nz

Focusing on water safety: from source to last flowing tap

The Drinking Water Protection Conference 2023 is a showcase for all matters pertaining to the protection of potable water. Held every second year, the conference brings like-minded individuals and parties together to discuss all matters related to backflow prevention.

Organised by Water New Zealand’s Backflow Group, these conferences have usually been structured around the point of supply definitions, changes to test procedures, legislative challenges, best practices for the myriad different councils and water authorities, while also highlighting new technologies that improve the overall backflow prevention.

This year, the group decided to broaden the scope and cover the protection of the water from the source to the last flowing tap. That is because backflow devices should not be the

first line of defence for the water, they should be the last.

We need to be able to think ahead, plan our networks (small and large, rural and urban) and have a multitude of approaches ready to mitigate risks we encounter, be they raw water sources, cross connections, or even bacteriological threats.

The Backflow Group has invited international speakers to give a global aspect of how we protect water from contamination, highlight the many things that can go wrong without sufficient protections in place and bring together different agencies like MBIE, Taumata Arowai, and Water New Zealand to understand how this all connects together in the new legislation.

Understanding this connectivity will be vital in making water reform a success and ensuring that the water we take for granted

will be protected in the years to come. This does not come without challenges and having a conference like this will give everyone a chance to be heard, make changes, and keep us all safe.

1-2 August 2023

Keep up to date with latest advancements in technology and practices. Listen to experts exchange knowledge and take part in thoughtprovoking discussion.

This conference gives you a unique opportunity to expand your knowledge, network with peers and industry leaders, and further your professional growth and development.

Join us for two days of learning and knowledgesharing, designed to deliver practical, relevant and cutting-edge information.

The Parnell Hotel & Conference Centre Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

This is a must-attend event for backflow professionals.

Hunting the next generation of water professionals

By Belinda Cridge, Water New Zealand training manager

We know we need to attract more young people into the water sector. That’s why a key focus of our training programme has been to strengthen our work in schools and in tertiary education.

We’ve been working on activities to engage school students as well as promoting the sector at tertiary career events in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. We have talked with hundreds of students, promoted our members and highlighted current career opportunities.

Many students aren’t aware of the range of career opportunities in water. That's why we’re exploring how we can work closer with our members to support their efforts to participate in careers events and ensure that the water sector generally is promoted across the country.

In Dunedin, we partnered with the Careers Service to provide a careers event with a difference. Instead of manning a stand we put together an event focussed on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation for all).

Students heard from three inspiring speakers, including Young Water Professional of the Year 2020 winner Tom Dyer. The session was chaired by David Ward from Dunedin City Council and included lively debate from the students about the future of water in New Zealand.

Feedback after the event showed that we successfully increased awareness and interest in the water sector with one student commenting: “[I] was really impressed by the workshop and in particular the policies and practices in respect to water management in New Zealand. Thank you for organizing such a wonderful programme.”

House of Science learning programme

Work is also underway to ensure that primary and early intermediate students will have the opportunity to learn more about water infrastructure and management.

Vision for 2050

The model for delivering water services is on the cusp of generational change. To provide a collective vision of where we want the change to lead us, Water New Zealand has been consulting with its members on the transformation they wish to see for the sector by 2050.

Through workshops in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton, online events, one-on-one interviews, and peer-review, we are working with members to consolidate their collective wisdom.

The transformation opportunities raised by the sector have been grouped into seven focus areas; Te Mana o te Wai, Capability and Education, Climate and Environment, People and Community, Digitally Enabled, Planning and Standards, and Smart Buyer.

Water New Zealand staff are working to combine the information the

We are currently working with several partners to sponsor multiple House of Science learning kits around the country.

The House of Science programme is an innovative educational initiative aimed at promoting scientific literacy among students. It involves a network of regional hubs that provide hands-on science resources and support to schools through experimental kits and curriculum-aligned learning resources.

Sponsored kits will feature the Water New Zealand logo along with information about the water sector and its role in protecting water resources.

Wonder project

Funding has also been secured through the Infrastructure Education and Training Charitable Trust grants to develop a water-focussed Wonder Project, in collaboration with Engineering New Zealand. The Engineering New Zealand Wonder Project encourages students to explore the world of engineering through hands-on challenges and interactive learning experiences.

Supported by a role model, students undertake a project related to a key concept.

Work will begin in August to scope potential water project ideas with the first schools participating in 2024. Keep an eye out for calls for mentors.

Sampling 101 – our latest digital badge

Sampling 101 is the latest digital badge to join our suite of Water New Zealand online training opportunities.

This badge is designed to help those who will be undertaking sampling of drinking water or wastewater in the field. It covers the basic concepts of why sampling is undertaken, example protocols for sampling from different sites and key health and safety considerations. It’s ideal for anyone new to this critical task.

sector has shared with us into goals, aspirations, and stepping stones to help the sector transform towards a shared vision for each.

We will be sharing our starting point for further comment via the usual Water New Zealand channels. If there are specific opportunities you wish to see addressed, email lesley.smith@waternz.org.nz

TOWARDS 2050:

The Water New Zealand Excellence Awards recognise outstanding achievement across the water sector.

Help us celebrate excellence.

We are seeking nominations for seven awards that acknowledge significant contributions from individuals and teams. Give your team and your organisation the recognition they deserve.

The finalists and winners will be presented with their awards at the Downer Gala Dinner at the Water New Zealand Conference and Expo

Entering is easy. Go to www.waternzconference.org.nz for award categories and more information.

Nominations close Friday, 28 July 2023

THANKS TO OUR AWARD SPONSORS

BROUGHT TO YOU BY GALA DINNER SPONSOR

The case for better coordination of stormwater approaches nationwide is clear

Water New Zealand technical advisor Nicci Wood explains how much of our stormwater infrastructure is either under capacity or is in no shape to protect communities. She says a new Water New Zealand managed national guide to hazard modelling will provide a valuable tool to improve urban land use management to help minimise flood risk.

Stormwater management will be pivotal to how we cope with climate change. Already floods are our most frequent and significant natural hazard and climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of storm events.

Insurance claims for the 2023 floods in Auckland could exceed $1 billion dollars, far exceeding previous amounts, which are estimated to have cost the country $170 million per year.

Recent flooding and storm events have illustrated this increasing risk and the need for better land use planning decisions that account for flooding and climate risk.

Lack of consistency across the country

Currently there are significant gaps in flood risk information and how it's developed, variations between councils’ levels of service, design

standards, and policies related to flooding and protection.

The difference in operational and capital expenditure between stormwater and the other waters is significant. The 2022 National Performance Review reveals stormwater networks receive, on average, a third of the funding of wastewater or drinking water systems.

Flood control policy and stormwater systems are designed using historical, decades-old storm intensity for the climate we had 50 or more years ago. Piped networks have been designed to meet an historic one-in-10 year storm. In many places, what has been built is for a onein-five year event.

We need a stormwater system designed for the climate we have now, and even better, the one we’ll have 50 years from now.

Flood models and maps, that take years to update and do not consider the increasing risks from climate change, are used to inform

Working towards resilience: Rainfall flood risks in Porirua

In developing its District Plan, Porirua City took the opportunity to strengthen the accountabilities, regulation, and policy between the management of stormwater hazards, and land use planning and development.

Porirua has taken a risk-based approach to all natural hazards in its District Plan. This includes modelling areas that could be at risk of flooding and using land use controls and design standards that avoid building on flood plains and protects overland flow paths.

To understand the flood risks, and make appropriate rules in the District Plan,

Wellington Water developed flood hazard models to understand areas in Porirua likely to be affected by a storm with a one percent annual exceedance probability.

The models, based on best practice flood modelling standards, consider the predicted impacts of climate change to 2120, allowing for sea-level rise of one metre and predicted increase in rainfall intensity and volume of 20 percent.

The resulting flood maps shows three high hazard types – localised inundation areas (for flooding predicted to be greater than 50mm), overland flow paths, and stream corridors.

The flood maps have been incorporated into the council’s District Plan alongside policies that ensure development does not occur in the high hazard areas or close to stream corridors. In areas at lower risk of inundation, the rules require residential floor levels to be above the 100-year flood level.

By improving understanding of flood events the maps will help plan pro-active infrastructure interventions and proactively plan for emergency responses, reducing the impact of future storms on the Porirua community.

The Porirua maps created are available at: https://rb.gy/0inj0

land use policy. The result is that we continue building in dumb, hazard prone places.

In many places, existing planning rules aimed at avoiding building on flood plains, protecting overland flow paths, requiring future-proofed stormwater management or including water-sensitive design are extremely weak or frequently overruled.

A cohesive, national approach to stormwater hazard modelling and smarter land use planning controls and design standards are needed.

Help is coming

As part of the rebranded affordable waters reform, stormwater is having its moment in the spotlight. Parliament’s cross-party Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on the Water Services Legislation Bill, which saw a huge push for proactive policy for stormwater, including transition plans, strategy and rules, risk management and water services entities becoming responsible for managing and maintaining all overland flow paths and watercourses in urban areas to name a few.

The Department of Internal Affairs National Transition Unit has its own stormwater team, which is progressing and funding development of a National Stormwater Modelling Guide.

Alongside new spatial planning laws and tighter land use rules, the guide will give greater certainty for water service providers around how to apply flood-risk data to ensure urban stormwater networks are designed, developed, and operated to manage current and future risks from climate change.

Water New Zealand has been engaged to project manage the guide development, recognising our relationship through special interest

groups and industry networks. Metis and Awa Environmental are collaborating on the project to develop the national-scale standardised stormwater hazard modelling methodology.

The guide will be forward facing; signposting users to the latest Ministry for the Environment (MfE) climate predictions data sets.

A consistent and appropriate approach

While not a pure transition activity, the transfer of stormwater responsibilities to the water service entities, with overland flow paths, asset renewals and upgrades, and catchment and spatial planning, will require cohesive and consistent flood hazard understanding.

To ensure the guide is owned, understood and implementable by the industry, we have established an advisory group to provide expertise and guidance. Members include consultants, developers, local government staff representatives from the MfE, and NIWA.

As well as workshops at the Modelling Symposium, Stormwater Conference 2023, and online, Water New Zealand has conducted membership surveys and held stakeholder interviews. These sessions have all helped capture current practices, providing a framework for the development of urban stormwater models and recommendations on how to achieve a consistent approach for stormwater modelling. This gap analysis has then fed into the draft structure and content of the guideline document.

We plan to have a draft guide for member feedback at the Water New Zealand Conference in October and a final guide launched in December 2023.

The final guide will be a Water New Zealand document and live in our Resource Hub on our website.

Supporting clean water in the Pacific

Water New Zealand is pleased to formally link with WaterAid Australia to help support communities around the Pacific with access to safe drinking water and better sanitation.

“Recently we formalised our relationship with WaterAid through an MoU and we hope that this will develop closer ties and more opportunities for our members to join in the many projects and initiatives underway,” says Water New Zealand chief executive Gillian Blythe.

“The agreement will leverage each other’s strengths on common goals of sustainable, clean, and safe water for all communities both here and within the wider Pacific region.”

She says there are many Water New Zealand members with unique skills to make a difference and help towards

achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene for all.

Winnovators

This year for the first time, two Kiwi teams will be competing in WaterAid’s Winnovators event, where teams compete to find innovative solutions to the problem around water.

Winnovators is WaterAid’s employee development programme. It provides the opportunity for teams to engage with realworld challenges and help further the work of WaterAid.

This year the focus is on a healthcare waste management solution for Timor-Leste. WaterAid has found waste management is one of the poorest performing areas in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at rural healthcare facilities in Timor-Leste. In Manufahi

and Liquiçà, fewer than one in 10 healthcare facilities are achieving basic service levels.

Watercare’s Wai Forward team hopes to deliver a low-cost incinerator to effectively manage biological waste, sterilise reusable glass and repurpose metal into tools. The team will also focus on education initiatives to upskill local staff and raise awareness in the community of the importance of maintaining hygiene and sanitation.

Meanwhile the team at Wellington Water are looking at holistic solutions to address the salination of groundwater supply due to the effects of climate change.

If you want to find out more about our relationship with WaterAid Australia and how you can get involved, visit waternz.org.nz and view a recent webinar discussion between outgoing WaterAid Australia CEO Rosie Wheen and Gillian (see more on page 64).

Stormwater takes centre stage

By Gillian Blythe, Water New Zealand chief executive

Thank you to everyone who helped make the Stormwater Conference 2023 such a big success. Over the years the conference has gone from strength to strength and this year was a record breaker, with almost 600 delegates.

The conference was opened by Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty, and there was a lot of interest in the pre-conference workshop, the many keynote and technical presentations, as well as our flood plenary session and field trips on the last day.

The huge level of enthusiasm this year may have also reflected the growing realisation of just how vulnerable much of our stormwater infrastructure is and the enormous challenges ahead of us.

It’s now clear that we need to take stormwater management seriously to ensure a more climate-resilient future.

Congratulations to our award winners and thank you to everybody who took the time to put in an entry. The calibre of entries was very high and we look forward to seeing more great work from our sector showcased in the future.

As with all our conferences, a lot of the benefit and enjoyment comes from the more informal conversations and connections we make over the two-and-a-half days. A highlight for me, as always, is catching up with members and meeting new ones.

Thank you again to all our exhibitors and a special thank you to our partners and sponsors – especially our premier partner Stormwater360, along with Dutton Stormwater, Tonkin + Taylor, SLR, Intergroup, Instrumatics, Stantec, Aurecon and Beca. Without their support we would not be able to hold such fantastic events.

Stormwater investment critical

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty opened the Stormwater Conference by reiterating that stormwater will remain a part of the water reform.

He says that keeping stormwater, drinking water, and wastewater together will enable the new water services entities (WSEs) to adopt an integrated approach to managing and operating our urban water systems.

“Our stormwater networks are under pressure not just from the effects of climate change, which is bringing a growing frequency of high-intensity storm events, but from historical under investment and the continuing expansion of urban areas, and population growth.”

He says stormwater needed to stop being treated as the ‘poor cousin’ to drinking water and wastewater – currently, its level of investment is less than 15 percent of the national total investment in water services.

“When reform was first being considered, many councils said they would struggle to afford the increasing investment required for stormwater infrastructure if drinking and wastewater were separated from it.”

He says that addressing the current lack of resources, funds and specialist skills for stormwater is essential to enable the country to plan and deliver a water resilient future.

The government had not changed its bottom lines, he says. These include public ownership of water service entities, balance sheet separation, or operational and financial independence to allow the entities to make much needed investment.

He spoke of the need for a sustainable long term stormwater infrastructure and that the recent cyclones were important lessons about why we need a holistic, integrated approach to stormwater management.

“As a country we are learning the value of the sponge city, working with natural systems using man-made wetlands, and green stormwater infrastructure to increase the capacity of the system to absorb stormwater.

“We need to better understand where the current and future flood risks are and plan for improved land use, and urban area design that provides for green stormwater infrastructure to better soak up stormwater.

“Resilient and reliable stormwater services, along with wastewater and drinking water, plays a major role in enabling future housing and urban development nationwide.

“Without access to reliable water services, quite simply, growth and development cannot happen.”

He says that the National Transition Unit is working to ensure that all major land development projects underway around the country maintain their momentum through transition.

As part of the practical process of transferring stormwater assets to the new WSEs, Kieran says that work is currently

underway to identify stormwater infrastructure and mixed use stormwater assets and functions.

This involves the new network asset transfer tool, developed to help categorise stormwater assets that will transfer to the new water services entity.

The tool also helps identify which assets stay with the territorial authority, and which assets need further discussion between the WSE, councils and other agencies.

He summed up saying that the need for investment in water services is only increasing. Events have highlighted how critical robust water services are, especially stormwater, for community resilience.

Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty

We need to take the lead

Iain White, professor of environment planning at the University of Waikato, spoke on how to break the disaster-response cycle, saying we need to adapt with a little more urgency.

“The climate is changing rapidly – records are expected to be broken incrementally, but the weather is breaking all records in leaps.

“How do we respond as professionals?”

Recent disasters have been pitched as a ‘wake-up call’, but what has been done? Iain says the first mention of a ‘wake-up call’ in the New Zealand press that he could find was back in 2002 following a flood in Queenstown. Then the term was used again, and again, and again.

“Is the risk progressing faster than the politics?”

What do we do when action is so slow? How do we respond as a national body? If not us, then who?, he asked delegates.

“We’re a community of leaders… I’m of the opinion we need to take the first step, as a community.”

He then gave an example of an industry body taking the lead: One year following the release

by the British Government of a 25-year plan to improve the environment, CIWEM, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, released its own document, rating how the government was progressing on its plan.

“It was really powerful advocacy work by [CIWEM’s] experts; holding power to account and including recommendations for how to make those implementations faster from what they know.”

He then went on to say that emergency politics is a very difficult space, unless you’re already prepared.

Looking at the government response following Covid, Iain followed the ‘shovel-ready’ money to see where it went. He says, if the government was really keen on transformation, and Iain believes they were, it was made impossible by the processes they themselves established.

“Bureaucracy is not meant to deliver change, it’s supposed to give us the same thing again and again, that’s why we have them.

“Transformation needs particular sets of processes and advocacy.”

He says we have made good progress, however.

“The guy who came up with the policy window idea uses the analogy of surfers waiting for the big wave – you’re just hovering there, you have a policy but the world’s not ready for it, so you just keep it, and you wait, and then, hang on, Cyclone Gabrielle comes.

“This is our big wave. This is our big opportunity because we have something we know how to do and we’re ready to go.

“If this isn’t our catalyst, what is?

Long term plan to reduce flooding in Whangārei

Whangārei’s Blue-Green Network Strategy featured as a keynote presentation. The strategy aims to create an attractive and environmentally sustainable urban environment that addresses threats from flooding and future climate change.

Shelley Wharton, Whangārei District Council manager infrastructure planning and capital works and Water New Zealand board member, shared the thinking around how developing nature-based solutions will help resolve flooding and stormwater issues in the city.

“It’s about working with the community, future-proofing and looking at our inner city infrastructure,” she says.

This means looking at how nature based solutions can make space for waterways, sometimes meaning that hazardous activities are removed from waterways and buying back properties if there is a need to make space for rivers.

Shelley says stormwater management solutions require a huge array of skills through multi-disciplinary teams, and the

challenge is bringing that together into the work being done.

With three rivers running through the city, flooding is an ongoing hazard in Whangārei, and sea levels are predicted to rise by one metre by 2100. Much of the challenge to reducing stormwater run-off involves current infrastructure – the city has a lot of impermeable surfaces and stormwater directly piped into streams.

The programme, funded and established

in 2020 with an initial $20-million in the city’s long term plan, is based around the Blue Green Network Strategy, adopted in 2016.

Essentially it is about reducing flood risk by making space for water. This is to be achieved through an integrated vision for the future, which enhances connectivity and vegetation, as well as opportunities for economic development.

Shelley stresses a key component is recognising the importance of working with tangata whenua to understand prior cultural uses, and stories that need to be reflected as the projects turn into action.

She said that tangata whenua have evidence-based knowledge about the natural environment and it’s important to bring that knowledge into the restoration picture.

However, it “must be done with respect and in a way that empowers tangata whenua through helping them build capacity and the ability to practice kaitiatikanga over their tribal area.”

Shelley Wharton

Iain White

Building a resilient city

Keynote speaker Arnoud Molenaar, chief resilience officer, City of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands spoke about the measures his city is undertaking to ensure it is water and climate resilient.

“Two thirds of The Netherlands is vulnerable to flooding, with one third below sea level. Water management is in our genes,” he says.

Rotterdam used to have canals to manage water, but previous generations decided they wanted cars. Arnoud says the resulting asphalt has caused many water storage problems, and stormwater has to be managed by the sewage system.”

The city is also growing, with 50,000 new houses to be built in the coming decade, further increasing the need for more water storage.

On top of this, the city needs to account for climate change.

Arnould says they have spent the past 15 years developing an integrated and holistic approach.

The programme framework for Rotterdam Weatherwise 2030 looks at the climate adaptation challenges, not just flooding and excessive rainfall, but things like drought and land subsidence, and the opportunities to implement solutions in new and existing built environments, as well as public spaces.

“We had a long-term vision to make the city more attractive, using water rather than fighting against it.”

They used this vision to develop a strategy, and from that created a short-term action plan, which is now being implemented.

Along with traditional solutions, there are nature-based solutions, including allowing small-scale flooding.

In the surrounds of the city, where there is space, they have built an Olympic sized rowing facility, Eendragtspolder, which doubles as a four million cubic metre water storage area.

In the centre of the city, where there is limited space, the Benthemplein water square, once a boring grey public space, has been redesigned to double as a water detention pond in heavy rain events.

Terraces along the canals are designed as urban flood plains and are allowed to overflow. In the streets, they’re getting rid of asphalt and increasing green space. There’s also floating urban development and green roofs among other measures.

To become a climate resilient city needs the involvement of citizens, says Arnould. That's important, when 60 percent of the city is privately owned.

To engage the public, Rotterdam started a competition with Amsterdam to remove the paving tiles that nearly every house has in its front gardens and replace them with plants. This has resulted in millions and millions of tiles being removed from both cities.

“You don’t need to wait until you have a strategy, you can start to implement ‘no regret’ measures right away,” urges Arnould. “Physical projects in the city will convince citizens and politicians that it is a good investment.”

To learn more about the climate resilience work underway in Rotterdam, go to resilientrotterdam.nl.

What stormwater brings to three waters

Andrew Chin is perfectly placed to answer the question, should stormwater be part of reform?

As executive director at Watercare, New Zealand’s largest two waters business, and head of strategy at Healthy Waters, Auckland Council, the country’s largest stormwater business, Andrew told delegates that there is some real opportunity for the stormwater sector in this reform.

As we know, stormwater investment lags well behind the other two waters – labelled the poor cousin to wastewater and drinking water.

Andrew describes wastewater and drinking water as clean and orderly.

“You have a meter, you know what’s private what’s public. Stormwater is messy – diffuse pollution, overland flow paths, water on private lands and the transport network…

“It’s complex, interesting, and fun.”

In addition, stormwater services are inherently a public good, he says.

“We’re out there to improve the intrinsic value of the environment, to build public resilience. Without stormwater, the other two waters could become just another transactional utility.

“Also, stormwater assets are beautiful.”

Andrew says the open nature of the

stormwater system forces stormwater professionals to have those similar open and outward-facing behaviours.

“Collaboration is part of a stormwater professional’s DNA – we’re always wanting to do something on someone else’s land. We want that sports field to be a flood attenuation area, we want to use the berms in the transport corridor for rain gardens and swales.

“We never have enough money. We’re used to having influence, but no outright control. This has made us strong, and good at doing this outward-facing collaboration.”

Andrew’s challenge to the stormwater sector, as we come into reform, is to bring that collaboration into the new entities.

“This is how we’re going to get the culture of these new entities right from the start.”

Eendragtspolder, Rotterdam

Andrew Chin

The time to act is now

On the final day of the Stormwater Conference, the plenary session on ‘Our Recent Flooding’ drew a big crowd, eager to hear the thoughts and insights from a variety of industry leaders. By Mary Searle Bell.

We need to take action on flood management, and the best time to do that is right now. Now, when the trauma and devastation of the recent floods are fresh in the minds of the public, says Chris Dolley of Hawkes Bay Regional Council.

Chris was one of five speakers addressing the highly topical issue of the recent flooding that devastated parts of the country. He told delegates that international research shows people are far more willing to move out of the way of floodwaters, embrace government spend on flood management measures, and accept the experts’ recommendations on flood prevention and management while the dangers and heartbreak of flooding is fresh in their minds.

Leave it too long and the ‘she’ll be right’ mentality reasserts itself, he cautions.

Chris’s presentation was focused on his council’s response to the havoc wreaked by Cyclone Gabrielle. While much of Te Ika-a-Māui North Island has received an extraordinary level of torrential rain this year, of the 11 fatalities recorded during Cyclone Gabrielle, eight were in Hawkes Bay.

“Going in, we had an expectation that the rainfall was going to be at the limits of some protection schemes, but in actuality, it was way, way worse,” he says.

“A big challenge arose in that the whole region was impacted hard. It was an overwhelming event for all the services to respond to.”

He says the flooding in Wairoa is a case example of how we can protect our communities better.

“Many of the houses impacted by Gabrielle were also impacted by Cyclone Bola back in 1988. Flood protection planning that was done after Bola wasn’t carried out.”

Chris says, further south, Tangoio Marae has been in discussions for the past 13 years to move as it’s in a flood zone.

“It didn’t move, and got 1.5 metres of silt through it.

“The lesson is, if you think you’re in the wrong place, act,” he says.

Paula Blackett of NIWA also spoke at the conference, saying work is underway to understand the cumulative effects of staying in a place that floods.

Three in-depth case studies, where researchers are chatting with people affected by floods, hope to reveal the financial, cultural and social impacts of flooding – who experiences these, how and why?

Paula’s co-presenter, Vivienne Ivory of WSP, spoke about the Waikanae flooding case study, which revealed flooding doesn’t have to be big to have an impact.

“Waikanae hasn’t had a catastrophic flood – yet – but has had a lot of wet weather events. We have respondents saying things like, ‘I haven’t been flooded but I can no longer use my backyard year-round’.

The other issue Vivienne raised is what regular flooding is doing to the quality of buildings – namely, causing issues with damp, and damp housing leads to poor health.

“An issue is that repeated localised flooding becomes the norm for some.”

She says that there is a vulnerability to harm from small scale flooding – something she terms ‘nuisance flooding’.

She explains that nuisance flooding is not large enough to trigger insurance payouts or assistance packages, and some people are unable to move from their flood-prone properties.

Paula then addressed the question: Why don’t people move?

“People stay for many reasons – schools, family, community, and more. They stay because they can achieve the things they need to where they are.

“People leave because they can’t cope and can’t do what they need.

“The ability to stay or go is impacted by many things.”

As part of their work ahead, an adaptation simulation game is in development. This will help people decide whether to stay in their flooded property or move on. The tool will be online and freely available, and Paula hopes it will help people to have conversations around this emotive question.

It is apparent that these conversations – understanding how people think and feel about flooding – will go a long way to helping find solutions to the issues created by these events.

Peter Christensen, who opened the flooding session, says flooding events stick in your head because flooding is about people and the impact it has on them.

“This year’s flooding has been extraordinary in the true sense of the word,” he says.

“The mayoral task force after the 2014 Christchurch floods said maintenance is important in flood management, but over

time, maintenance funding gets squeezed.”

He outlined several key issues that need to be addressed, including the lack of a national level of service for the country, saying we need a strategic approach to flood management.

“Good flood planning is important, and we need to stop shortterm thinking.

“We need to be storytelling – and unfortunately, flooding that doesn’t happen isn’t a story – it’s a problem of the more successful you are, the less money you get. But we need to inform government policy and be advocates for communities.”

Graeme Smart of NIWA spoke about the current raft of ‘black swan’ weather events around the world.

“El Niño and La Niña are supposedly cyclic, but we have had three La Niñas in a row.”

He then outlined the potential impact climate change will have on the weather, saying that ocean evaporation will increase by 1-2 percent per degree of global warming.

“The capacity of the atmosphere to hold water increases around seven percent per degree of warming. And what goes up must come down. But changes in the characteristics of rain are more serious than changes in average volume.

“Global climate modeling predicts more extreme rainfalls and fewer light rainfalls.”

He went on to say the flooding in Tutaekuri in Hawkes Bay was way bigger than a one-in-1000-year flood, but “is this a blip or are climate change events bigger and earlier than anticipated?”

And it’s not just New Zealand; astronomical and unexpected wet weather has been seen around the world this year resulting in flooding, landslides, and many deaths.

Graeme outlined the predicaments we face:

• The hydrologic baseline is non-stationary

• Our flood schemes are under-designed

• Population expansion is seeing us build on floodplains

• There are unanticipated consequences as a result of extreme flooding.

Nick Brown of the Auckland Council was able to illustrate much of this in his presentation on the Auckland flooding events of this year.

He said that 60 percent of urban Auckland was affected – some one million people – and the rainfall broke the 100-year records for all durations, from 10 minutes to 24 hours.

The resulting flooding saw a third of the council’s flow sites lost or overwhelmed, insurance payouts skyrocket, and a lot of poor decisions made by the public with regards to driving through and swimming in floodwater.

“Education is a big thing. People were wading through and swimming in water that was contaminated by raw sewage.”

Nick says there is no solution to events of this magnitude, and the focus should be on avoidance and resilience.

“We have created a flood viewer, so we can see where the flooding is in the city. We’re currently going through the final stages to get it published.

“We are also focusing on advisory and compliance work –ensuring developers and the public understand overland flow paths.

“We saw houses flooded because of driveways having been

lowered and other poor landscaping decisions. We need to make sure water can get safely from one side of a property to the other.”

He also said redevelopment is an opportunity to get the city to a more resilient future.

“Property buy-out needs to be part of the solution for Auckland.”

Belinda Storey of Climate Sigma addressed the insurance side of the issue, outlining a number of methods to reduce vulnerability and exposure.

She said remediation, to make the property less vulnerable, and defence systems, such as sea walls, pumps and bigger drains, to provide ongoing protection from the forces of nature, only suppress the risk – they don’t stop really big events.

And while the financial impact can be reduced with insurance, the only way to truly lower the risk is managed retreat.

“Insurers insure rare events. But with climate change, these events won’t be so rare.”

She then crunched the numbers on the insurance subsidy if a one-in-100-year flood became an annual event. The results saw the premium on a $500,000 house go from $1493 per year to a staggering $94,818.

She says New Zealand houses are built to a 1:475 year event (and this is based on earthquakes) – that means there’s a 10 percent probability it will happen once in the 50 year design life of the house.

“Stop banks have a 40 percent chance of failure in 50 years. What does that mean with climate change?

“If your house has been damaged by floods and you rebuild it, you’re likely to have to rebuild it again.

“Some houses will be uninsurable in 10-20-30 years.”

She says people needed to understand that the insurance sector acts in its own best interests.

The case may rise where insurers sue councils for the failure of flood protection measures, she warns.

“We need to be more ambitious about moving people out of harm’s way.”

The series of presentations closed with a question-and-answer session, and it was clear all speakers were on the same page.

Paula impressed that we need to stop talking numbers and talk about the impact on people instead.

Nick agreed, saying while it is possible to engineer our way out, can we afford it? Ultimately, he says, it is more cost effective to remove the people from the hazard rather than removing the hazard from the people.

It is clear that education is paramount to the solution, as an informed public makes better decisions.

We need to improve the public’s willingness to stop building on floodplains by making them more aware of the hazards of building in these areas, says Chris.

“Academics can back councils on this.”

That said, unlike the majority of the Stormwater Conference audience, most people work at an emotional level rather than a scientific one. Therefore, he says, “we need to make changes while emotions are high”.

When it counts.

Stormwater management solutions.

The Innovation Showcase winner, sponsored by Stormwater360, was Kris Fordham from Auckland Council, Lynker Analytics and Mott MacDonald, for Virtual Eyes. This innovation used AI technology with live streamed video to check on potential onsite issues. The presentation showed a recent scenario where clearing of storm water screens was identified remotely.

Warren Bird of WSP won the Stormwater Professional of the Year Award 2023, sponsored by Aurecon. The judges remarked that Warren has made significant contributions to the stormwater industry through his leadership and advocacy roles on major construction projects, as well as his support to the stormwater SIG committee. “Warren has played a pivotal role in advancing stormwater infrastructure and management in New Zealand”. Read Warren’s profile on page 22.

Poster of the Year was won by Tim Strang, from Wellington Water. Tim’s poster was titled ‘Soakholes for Sustainable, Reliable Stormwater Disposal across Aotearoa’. It described the differences between e1 and gdo7 and provided alternative solutions that can be used nationally.

Josiah Simmonds of WSP was named Young Stormwater Professional of the Year 2023, sponsored by Beca. The judges say he stood out for his commitment not just to his projects, but to the communities in which these projects are being delivered, and also with supporting the wider industry through their volunteer work both locally and in the Pacific Islands.

Presentation of the Year Award went to Sue Ira from Koru Environmental and Linda Shamrock from Pattle Delamore Partners for their presentation, ‘Going green: costs and benefits of living roofs on bus shelters in Auckland’.

StOrming SuccESS for tEam Pdp

At the recent Water NZ Stormwater Conference, our team members Linda Shamrock & Mark Ellis both took away top honours in the Conference Awards.

Congratulations to Linda, who won “Best Presentation”, with Sue Ira of Koru Environmental for their Living Roofs for Bus Shelters project presentation. And to Mark, who was part of the winning team with “Best Paper”; Te Kuneroatanga: The Evolution of Stormwater Management Plans - Giving Effect to Te Mana

pdp.co.nz

o Te Wai.

Receiving the award for Paper of the Year, from left, Mark Ellis of Pattle Delamore Partners, Grant Hall from the Timaru District Council, Sarah Dudson of WSP, and Treena Davidson of Aoraki Environmental Consultants. Brent Hamilton of WSP was absent. Their winning paper was ‘Te Kuneroatanga: The Evolution of Stormwater

Management Plans – Giving Effect to Te Mana o te Wai’. The judges say this paper provides a timely case study, sharing lessons learnt from the truly collaborative development of stormwater management plans, incorporating the modern paradigms of stormwater management.

Going with the flow

When Warren Bird completed his degree in engineering at the University of Canterbury, it was a time when that institution was a world leader in reinforced concrete seismic design.

“We all came out believing we’d be structural engineers, but I soon found out that wasn’t for me.”

But while he says he wasn’t cut out for it, he also says it was good training and it has stood him in good stead throughout his career.

After graduating, Warren married and moved to Auckland, where he joined the Papakura City Council.

“We had an engineering staff of three. The city engineer was in charge, the deputy city engineer ran the works depot, and then there was me, a graduate engineer, and I did everything else.”

This ranged from building permit checks to looking after the water treatment plant, as well as managing subdivisions, stormwater and the council refuse landfill.

“My job involved a bit of everything.”

Later, Papakura City Council became Papakura District Council and became responsible for a much bigger area and had a bigger staff. With the restructure, Warren was made a senior engineer.

“In the late 80s, we were hit by some big flood events and subsequently undertook some significant flood protection work, including developing the first catchment plans for the district. I was the link person between the council and the Auckland Regional Water Board, which was responsible for catchment plans back in those days.

“We also enlarged bridge waterways, carried out stream training works, built stop banks and raised more than 30 houses. While I can’t take credit for the design, I was deeply involved in all of them.

“So, without realising it, or actively seeking it, water had increasingly become part of my work.”

Another notable water related project from his time with the council was the construction of what was at the time the largest air supported structure in the Southern Hemisphere, built over the public swimming pool.

“It was a great big PVC dome with very effective anchorage and big fans pumping air into it continuously – enough to keep the pressure inside just above atmospheric pressure outside and keep it up.”

After 13 years with the council, Warren felt it was time to move on. But he was worried that he didn’t have a speciality as his scope of work had always been so broad.

“Looking back over my career, it seems I fell into stormwater because of the flooding events – there was no grand plan.”

Warren says stormwater management has changed more in the past 30 to 40 years than it has since the time of the Romans.

“Where once it was all about getting rid of water quickly and efficiently, we now realise stormwater isn’t always clean, so we need to treat it, and increasing impervious surfaces mean we need detention systems to reduce peak flows that could lead to flooding or stream erosion.

“We now have a multi-faceted, holistic approach to stormwater management

compared to 40-50 years ago.”

And as stormwater management developed and matured, alongside it so too did Warren’s career.

“I started with flooding, moved into treatment and detention and, more recently, things like building fish passage, stream enhancement, and what is now called watersensitive design. The secret is to mimic nature; as engineers, we need to do what nature does naturally.

“I am lucky to have had the industry and my career grow in parallel – I got to learn everything step by step rather than all at once.”

Warren has long appreciated the variety of his training.

“I discovered what a great heritage I had inadvertently acquired, with such a broad scope. I would encourage youngsters today not to specialise too early.”

In 1997, Papakura District Council did what many government bodies around the world were doing and decided to privatise its works department. Then they went a step further than most and privatised their in-house staff. Consequently, Warren found himself redundant. But not for long.

“Opus (now WSP) tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘come work with us’.

“I joined their fledgling environmental group. There was only about eight people doing three waters stuff and another eight planners and landscape architects.”

Warren says it was a good training ground to work alongside these people.

“These days we have over 60 three waters engineers but they’re not in the same group as the LAs and town planners and we have lost something because of that.

Initially, Warren’s work was in all three waters and solid waste management.

He recalls one particularly interesting project from that time:

“Great Barrier Island historically had a lot

A broad background and a willingness to continue learning has seen 2023 Stormwater Professional of the Year Warren Bird’s career grow and thrive, and consequently, he cautions people not to specialise too early – they may miss out on something they truly enjoy.

By Mary Searle Bell

of unregistered and abandoned cars – people would take old wrecks over for their holiday and abandon them when they finished rather than paying to ship them back to the mainland – and the police decided to clamp down. There were literally hundreds of dead and dying cars parked up all over the island and I worked with the council to get a crusher shipped to the island, created a safe processing area, crushed the cars and sent them back to Auckland.”

Over the years, Warren has done a lot of drainage design for highways, being involved in more than 30 major highway projects throughout the country.

“My favourite project, and my singularly most successful project – coming in on budget and a month early – was the Huntly Bypass, which was built between 2015 and 2019.

“It was a design and build project, delivered by Jacobs, Opus, HEB, and Fulton Hogan. I led a drainage design team of six.

“I really appreciated having a very involved contractor, who would walk around the design office and collaborate with us – we switched from plastic pipes to concrete because of a good deal the contractor could get.

“I also learnt a lot. He’d say, ‘you may design it that way, Mr Bird, but we sure-ashell won’t build it that way!’ It made me sit up and listen.

“We had designed for very thick concrete pipes to be used in a steep gully. He said, we can’t truck them up and we can’t lift them with a digger as they’re too heavy; we’d need a crane and there’s no room up there for a crane.

“Thanks to that, we found a solution that didn’t need heavy Class 8 pipes and designed for much lighter pipes instead.

“It was a great example of collaborative design between the designer, contractor and pipe manufacturer.”

Warren has also worked on Auckland’s City Rail Link as stormwater technical lead, which saw him reviewing all the stormwater designs for the project.

“This project was interesting in that the existing North Auckland Railway Line runs in a cutting which, in a big flood, surface water would run into. Problem was, with the City Rail Link installed, the water would be able to run into the tunnel and would then

flood Britomart three kilometres away in downtown Auckland.

The obvious solution was a flood wall to stop the tunnel flooding but that would mean properties in the area would flood instead.

The resulting design was to divert water via a big pipe to the lower catchment, but then the team had to ensure properties there didn’t flood as a result.

“We were chasing a solution. We’d solve one problem but create another, but we got there.”

When asked about his recent accolade, Warren says he has huge regard for the past winners of the Stormwater Professional of the Year award.

“I didn’t consider myself in their league, so I was absolutely delighted when they called my name at the awards dinner.

“Perhaps the bit I love most about winning is that it gives people permission to say the encouraging things we all wish we heard more often.

“Winning was a huge honour but the compliments from my peers are even better.”

Godfather of groundwater science elected to the Royal Society

Murray Close, principal scientist and leader of the Christchurch-based groundwater team, has been at Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) for over 30 years. This year his achievement has been recognised with him being elected as a Fellow to the Academy of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, an honour that acknowledges distinction in research and knowledge at the highest international standards.

ESR interviewed Murray to find out what’s kept him interested in groundwater for the past three decades.

How did you get into groundwater research?

I’m a chemist by training, but when I finished my degree, I just applied for research positions with the word ‘scientist’ in the title. I was offered a groundwater quality scientist role, and another one looking at animal health. I chose groundwater.

I started out at the Water and Soil Division of the Ministry of Works and Development in 1979. After some reorganisations in the late 1980s, we were moved into the Geophysics

Division of DSIR (the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research – a former government science agency that was broken into Crown Research Institutes in 1992). The group consisted of some chemists like me, as well as microbiologists, hydrologists, modelers and geophysicists – a multidisciplinary group, which is what you need to study groundwater.

After DSIR was restructured in 1992, I had about four months at GNS before the Christchurch office was closed down and I was made redundant. I was offered a job at ESR to basically grow a groundwater research group. In the 30 years that I’ve been here, we’ve grown from three people to almost 20.

What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in how groundwater is monitored and managed?

There’s been a lot of progress made, but there’s a lot more to be done. In terms of the management of groundwater and the understanding of groundwater flow processes, the challenge comes from knowing exactly where or how deep the groundwater is.

It’s also difficult to sample because the number of wells are limited – and expensive to install and sample – meaning we have a lot less information to work with compared to many other environments.

Groundwater scientists have to make inferences based on this limited

Murray (third from right) at the construction site of Institute of Environmental Science and Research's denitrification well at Silverstream Reserve in Canterbury.

information, so in terms of finding out what’s going on, you have to weigh the limited information against the uncertainty around that information.

I think there’s now a much greater understanding of this uncertainty associated with groundwater flow paths, but for a lot of people it’s very much out of sight and out of mind. So it’s a challenge to get the information, and it’s also a challenge to get funding for that information because it can be out of sight and out of mind for funders as well.

What advances have there been in the technology you can use?

The pathogen surrogates that Dr Liping Pang has developed is worldleading. These surrogates mimic the physiochemical properties of waterborne pathogens like rotavirus and Cryptosporidium protozoa to predict water contamination risks and help design improved water treatment systems and water-supply bore protections to keep our drinking water safe.

The geophysics monitoring we can now do using radar signals to generate reflections of the groundwater is giving us a lot of information about soil moisture, where the water table is, how deep the aquifer is, and how thick it is.

We’ve also been trialling some high frequency monitoring of nitrates and water levels. These sorts of technologies give much greater insights of the processes that are happening in the groundwater.

There’s been a big increase in the number of analytical techniques we can use too, allowing us to detect things like pesticides and emerging organic contaminants and survey the presence of these in groundwater.

The techniques for looking at the biology and the microbiology of groundwater systems have also exploded in terms of DNA techniques. eDNA identification techniques, for example, have enabled us to do a whole lot more studies into the natural groundwater ecosystem, which is fascinating.

Have the threats to groundwater changed? Are there more environmental risks now than when you started?

I think we’re more aware of some of the threats.

Farming is a big issue, particularly in terms of the nitrates that get into the groundwater. One way of stopping this is to reduce the source of the nitrates getting into groundwater.

But in some aquifers groundwater

Murray holding a ceramic soil water extraction lysimeter at the pesticide leaching trial in Hawke's Bay in the mid 1990s.

flow times are slow – 50 to 100 years easily (that’s in New Zealand, in some other parts of the world, it can take thousands of years). It means there’s a big lag time between nitrates entering the groundwater and making it into the surface water.

Around Pukekohe, for example, where a lot of vegetables are grown, the groundwater has some of the highest nitrate levels in New Zealand. Vegetables have been grown here for over 100 years, but the mean age of the groundwater is about 50 years.

Even if we stopped nitrates entering the groundwater now, there would still be high levels coming out for the next 50 years. That’s why we also need mechanisms for removing the nitrate before it impacts the surface streams.

Nitrates from farming aren’t the only issue. Other pollutants include industrial chemicals, such as from degreasing agents, or industrial plasticizers, which can get into groundwater too.

Then there is the higher intensities and durations of rainfall that we’re seeing as a result of climate change. This increases microbial transport to the groundwater: the more saturated the conditions at the soil surface and in the unsaturated zone, the more microbial transport there is.

Why are groundwater scientists so essential?

Groundwater systems contain about 97 percent of the usable freshwater in the world. Lakes and rivers represent a very small three percent of usable freshwater. Groundwater sustains the flow of all the rivers and streams through the summer period, making it a critical part of the water cycle, and yet it’s not widely recognised.

Groundwater scientists are essential to building good understanding and knowledge of groundwater – and through their work – make it more visible.

The importance of groundwater hasn’t changed, if anything it has increased, so I think it’s a really critical area to work in. There’s lots of really interesting problems to address and a great bunch of people in the regional councils, at ESR, and other research institutes to work with.

What achievement are you most proud of?

A paper I did for the Journal of Water and Health in 2008. It was a three-year study looking at the issue of microbial transport into groundwater under flooded irrigated situations (Read it here: https:// rb.gy/49wm0).

We looked at a dairying area that had a high percentage of flooding irrigation, so expected a worse case situation for microbial transport. We found that 75 percent of the samples collected during the irrigation season had E. coli in them, and at quite a high level. We also found about 12 percent of the samples had detectable Campylobacter in them.

As people were using this water for drinking, we then decided to do a health risk assessment to find out what your chance of getting sick was. During the six-month irrigation season, we found that people drinking the water had about a 70 percent chance of getting sick with Campylobacter.

I then divided Canterbury up into three regions: dairying with flood irrigation; the rest of rural Canterbury (non-flood irrigation areas); and Christchurch city. There were significantly higher levels of gastroenteritis, campylobacteriosis and

other gastro diseases in the flooded landuse situation, versus the other areas.

It was a really neat piece of work in terms of looking at what microbial contamination was there, what was the health risk was, and what the epidemiological outcomes of that were. The paper has been cited about 100 times, and even though people were already starting to move away from flood irrigation towards spray irrigation on the basis of water use efficiency, I think this study also helped.

What does the Royal Society Fellowship mean to you?

It was a bit of a surprise as I think I’d been in the nomination pool for about five years!

I’m still sort of getting my head around what it means, but on a personal level it’s very pleasing. I think it reflects on some great people I’ve worked with over the years and the different projects I’ve been involved in. There’s been recognition with the outstanding achievement award from the Hydrological Society, but it’s good to get groundwater recognised in the wider research field.

Murray with fellow ESR groundwater scientist Allanah Kelly.

Atrina at Site 1 mussel farm: Skipper Rod Budd, divers Dave Bremner, Jenny Hillman, Jack Massuger (sitting down at front).

Photo: Drew Lohrer, NIWA.

Researchers dive deep to examine seafloor life below mussel farms

The study is being led by NIWA for the Waikato Regional Council and will involve research at mussel farms in Manaia Harbour in the Inner Hauraki Gulf.

There has been much research on the effects of mussel farms on the seafloor habitat, but this will be the first study to compare nitrogen removal, or denitrification, on the seafloor inside and outside mussel farms in New Zealand.

Excess nitrogen in coastal marine waters linked to land-based activities can cause harmful algal blooms and other environmental problems. Understanding nitrogen removal will help inform better management decisions, and seafloor nitrogen removal is a key piece of the puzzle.

NIWA marine ecologist Dr Emily Douglas is the study’s project leader and was with the research team which completed the first of two field trips in Manaia Harbour in March. The second is planned for September to provide a seasonal comparison.

“Mussel farms use dropper lines or ropes to grow the shellfish. Some mussels will drop off the ropes and fall to the seafloor where they will continue to grow and this is the environment we want to focus on for the study,” Emily says.

Mussels use their gills to filter water so they can extract food particles and oxygen. Seafloor shellfish beds, including mussel beds, have been shown to contribute to many important ecosystem processes, including denitrification.

As the mussels filter particles from the water, they produce biodeposits that enrich the sediment with organic matter. Bacteria living in the sediment break down this organic matter into dissolved inorganic nitrogen. This is the form of nitrogen that denitrification acts on and eliminates.

The byproduct of denitrification is N2 gas, which is a benign form of nitrogen that makes up much of the air that we breathe.

“Through this study, the regional council wants us to investigate whether mussels living on the seafloor under mussel farms can enhance removal of nitrogen from the water, in a similar way to natural mussel beds.

“It could help the council determine whether drop-off mussels, under mussel farms, help to contribute to improved marine water quality.”

The research team visited two mussel farms in Manaia Harbour in March to take the first series of samples from the seafloor.

“One of the farms we selected was slightly deeper and the other in shallower water. Our selection of sites allowed us to sample across gradients in depth, water flushing,

A new study investigating the seafloor habitat below commercial mussel farms is likely to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.

WATER NEW ZEALAND DENTRIFICATION

and sediment characteristics such as an abundance of shell material, muddiness and organic matter content.”

At each site, five incubation chambers (square boxes enclosing a set amount of seafloor area and bottom water) were placed on the seabed.

At sites within the farms, live drop-off mussels were present inside the chambers along with dead mussel shell material and seafloor

PHOTO COURTESY OF: JULIA SIMPSON, WAIKATO REGIONAL COUNCIL.

Can woodchip bioreactors reduce the export of nitrate and microbial contaminants to our waterways?

A team of scientists, Dr Lee Burbery, of DairyNZ, and Phil Abraham, Dr Theo Sarris, and Murray Close of ESR, are evaluating the long-term performance of a woodchip denitrifying bioreactor.

The woodchip denitrifying bioreactor (WDB) is being trialled as a nitrogen mitigation method at Barkers Creek Catchment, near Geraldine, South Canterbury. The primary purpose of WDBs is removal of nitrate from water, however the team are now focussing their attention on testing the extent to which WDBs can also filter microbial contaminants from farm drainage water.

Woodchip denitrification bioreactors for nitrate mitigation

Denitrification is a natural process whereby microbes transform nitrate (NO3-) into harmless nitrogen gas (N2), which makes up around 78 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Denitrifying organisms are inhibited by oxygen, so denitrification happens only under low or zero oxygenated conditions. Denitrifying

bioreactors are designed to provide these chemical conditions that promote denitrification of nitrate.

In woodchip denitrifying bioreactors, the woodchip serves as a reactive porous media, fuelling the microorganisms and removal of nitrate from water that passes through the bioreactor. WDBs have been successfully trialled both overseas and here, and researchers have proven that they can successfully reduce nitrate levels in both surface drainage waters and groundwater.

Although previous WDB trials have been undertaken in sub-surface drains and in shallow aquifers in New Zealand, the WDB trial at Barkers Creek Catchment was the first to be installed in an artificial open drain.

The WDB is 75 metres long and contains 430 cubic metres of pine (Pinus radiata) woodchips that are sealed in a rubber membrane (Figure 1a, 1b). For the purposes of water quality monitoring, sampling

Figure 1a. Installation of ESR’s woodchip denitrifying bioreactor into an open drain on a dairy farm at Barkers Creek Catchment, near Geraldine, South Canterbury.

Above

points were installed through the reactor (Figure 1b).

Since its commissioning in 2021 the team have been regularly monitoring water quality at the site and the bioreactor’s performance. Over the first two years of operation, the bioreactor has on average reduced nitrate concentrations by 69 percent and removed around 500kg of nitrogen each year (Figure 2).

Can WDBs also remove microbial contaminants?

As part of the team’s monthly monitoring programme, they have also measured microbial contaminants. These data consistently showed lower concentrations of E. coli, total coliforms and campylobacter at the reactor outflow compared to the inflow.

To investigate this phenomenon further, the team undertook a field-experiment using non-pathogenic versions of microbial tracers (E. coli  J6-2, bacteriophages MS2 and PRD1), a surrogate tracer for Cryptosporidium, and a control salt tracer.

These surrogates and tracers were injected into the WDB inflow. Campylobacter transport was assessed by measuring the levels present in the waterway and tracking it as it moved through the reactor.

After injection, water was sampled from six sampling points installed along the transect within the WDB (Figure 1b), allowing the tracers to be tracked as they passed through the reactor, and their removal rates assessed.

Looking ahead

The research team is now busy processing and analysing the field samples.

Based on the concentration breakthrough curves of the tracers and the long-term monitoring data, they will characterise the transport and removal of the microbial tracers by the WDB. Going forward, the team aims to assess whether WDBs are a viable, cost-effective mitigation practice for reducing nitrate and microbial loads in agricultural watersheds.

Acknowledgements

Construction and scientific instrumentation of the woodchip bioreactor at Woodbury was financed through the New Zealand Government’s Strategic Science Investment Fund, made available from NIWA and ESR, using Core Purpose funding.

Further, we thank Canterbury Woodchip Supplies, Coleman Agriculture, and Gerard Zandbergen who provided much in-kind support. Operation and monitoring have been resourced by both ESR and DairyNZ.

We are grateful to the Saywell family for hosting the bioreactor on their farm, and the Central South Island office of Fish and Game for their assistance in water sampling.

Thanks to Liping Pang for development of the Cryptosporidium surrogate tracer. Thanks to Erin McGill, Dr Sophie van Hamelsveld, Judith Webber, Tanya DeVries and Dr Louise Weaver for their laboratory work and analysis following the microbial tracer experiment, and to Dr Andy Pearson and Dr Allanah Kenny for assistance during the field experiment.

Top graph: Figure 1b. Schematic showing the longitudinal profile of the WDB. Credit, Lee Burbery.

graphs: Figure 2a: Nitrate concentrations at the inflow, 50 m and outflow of the WDB from February 2021 to December 2022. Figure 2b: Nitrate removal (percent) between the inflow and the outflow.

Figure 2a Figure 2b

A fresh perspective on eel conservation

Ecosystem ecologist Dr Simon Stewart of the Cawthron Institute was awarded a Marsden Fast-start grant to investigate the link between levels of īnanga (whitebait) in our rivers and numbers of tuna (longfin eel), a freshwater apex predator in decline.

Our freshwater eel populations need our help. In 2013, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released a report on our endemic longfin eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii), calling for a moratorium on all harvesting of these eels.

One of the biggest challenges cited in the recovery of longfins is that they are extremely slow growing; they are the slowestgrowing freshwater eel species in the world. On average, longfin eels grow at around 25mm per year and often as slowly as 9mm per year.

They are extremely long living: some eels from Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park were shown to be more than 100 years old!

Given that they breed only once, at the end of their lives when they have reached about one metre in length, you can see how conservation of longfin eels is challenging.

A common misconception is that longfin eels are inherently slow to grow, but this is not true. Tank feeding trials have shown that, when given sufficient food, longfin eels grow just as quickly as any other eel species.

The problem in New Zealand is that they are just not getting enough food to achieve their growth potential. If we were able to enhance their food supply, longfin eels would grow faster, mature faster and return to sea for breeding faster, and thus their populations would recover faster.

That now begs the question, what could such a food source be?

A recent study within the Waituna Creek/Waituna Lagoon system in Southland has shed some light on possibilities for enhancing longfin eel populations through diet improvement.

Waituna Creek has a lot of eels: the biomass per square metre is within the top 25 percent of recorded values for streams globally.

Moreover, they are primarily longfin eels.

The study showed that, unlike most eel populations across the country, the Waituna Creek eels were rarely eating invertebrates in the stream. Instead, more than 90 percent of their diet comprised īnanga and smelt, which migrate upstream from the brackish water of Waituna Lagoon.

An analogy can be drawn here with efforts to conserve populations of grizzly bears and bald eagles along the northwest coast of North America in the 1970s. Studies at that time showed that upstream-migrating salmon transport nutrients and energy from the Pacific Ocean to mountain streams, where they feed the bears and eagles and fertilise the surrounding forests.

Understanding the importance of this trans-ecosystem salmon migration shifted the focus of bear conservation towards (initially) providing salmon passage over dams and (more recently) to the

removal of dams to fully restore salmon runs and the ecosystem services they provide.

Taking these ecosystem-based conservation lessons from North America and applying them through a uniquely Kiwi lens provides us with a whole new perspective on eel conservation: enhancing our whitebait for the good of our eels. Such an approach immediately refocuses conservation efforts towards our highly modified and managed lowland freshwater ecosystems.

As a country, we are blessed with stunning national parks that protect clear, cold-water rivers flowing over bare cobbles primarily in higher altitude environments. However, these

Main image: Waituna Creek, typical of many modified lowland streams. Inset: Longfin eels in Lake Rotoroa at D’Urville Jetty. Currently one of the country's best intact populations.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: ANNA SINTENIE AND SIMON STEWART.

An example of a large longfin eel from Waituna Creek collected during fish population monitoring.

PHOTO COURTESY OF: DR KATIE COLLINS, DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION.

beautiful environments can easily distract us from the lowland streams we live next to and see every day.

Our whitebait species are amphidromous: spawned eggs are washed out to sea, and the fish then re-enter streams and rivers as juveniles. From the perspective of a fish, the river mouth is the starting point, and this environment defines the rest of their life. This also explains why the Waituna Creek supports so many eels – the downstream Waituna Lagoon is one of the country’s most intact lowland ecosystems.

Unlike comparable but more degraded coastal lagoons (including Lake Ellesmere in Canterbury, Wainono Lagoon in South Canterbury and Whakakī Lagoon near Wairoa), the Ramsar-listed Waituna Lagoon still contains native submerged vegetation (Ruppia species), which provides a fantastic feeding nursery for juvenile whitebait.

The ecosystem services of this near-pristine ecosystem are transported by īnanga up into the inflowing Waituna Creek, where they then support the growth of resident eels.

Unfortunately, our lowland lagoons, wetlands and streams are also our most heavily impacted freshwater systems. A shocking 90 percent of our lowland wetlands have been drained and 90 percent of our lowland lakes are degraded beyond the national bottom line for water quality.

While our galaxiid species are facing a range of stressors, it is clear that this habitat loss has contributed to the huge decline

in whitebait runs from historical abundances and the flow-on effects of this throughout the wider ecosystem.

However, with the correct knowledge, what may seem like an immense challenge for our lowland ecosystems is actually a tremendous opportunity.

Lowland ecosystems contain a huge potential for longfin restoration. Because they tend to be warmer, fish have greater growth potential than in cooler upstream waters. Moreover, because īnanga – which make up more than 90 percent of our whitebait catch – are a lowland species (over 90 percent of all īnanga records are from below 30 metres elevation), there is a far greater likelihood that our eels will get sufficient food to achieve their growth potential in lowland streams.

Lastly, because we actively manage our lowland freshwater ecosystems more than any other, there are several options available to restore them.

Over the next three years, with colleagues Robin Holmes, Jess Leuders-Dumont, and Eimear Egan, I will be conducting research supported by the Marsden Fund to understand the unique challenges and potential of taking a diet-based approach to eel conservation in our lowland ecosystems.

We will be expanding on our preliminary work in the Waituna system to quantify the flow of energy upstream for eels within a near-pristine ecosystem.

We will then use historical eel ear bones (which can record

growth rates and diet signals) collected from Lake Ellesmere to better understand the consequences for eels when Cyclone Giselle tore up weed beds in 1968 and forced the lake on a different trajectory to that of Waituna Lagoon.

Lastly, we will assess the response of eels to whitebait fishery protections on the West Coast of the South Island.

I hope that our research will inform restoration and management

of our lowland ecosystems that reconnects and rejuvenates our freshwater fish. In the meantime, I hope that we as a country can all begin to see the potential of our lowland ecosystems and the integral role we all play in deciding the fate of our freshwater fish.

Next time you see a ‘drain’ or a stop bank blocking a river from its floodplain, think about the potential for energy transfer and growth that is begging to be realised.

Waituna Lagoon, part of the Ramsar-listed Awarua Wetland and one of the best examples of an intact coastal lagoon system in New Zealand.

The Water Services Act 2021 (the Act) provides a new regulatory approach and introduces some new responsibilities for drinking water suppliers.

Following public consultation, new Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules, Drinking Water Standards, Aesthetic Values and three Acceptable Solutions came into effect for registered suppliers on 14 November 2022.

Drinking Water Regulation Report

We have published our second Drinking Water Regulation Report, which helps shine a light on the state of drinking water in Aotearoa New Zealand. The report focuses on local and central government supplies that serve the majority of New Zealanders with drinking water. It covers the period from 1 January to 31 December 2022. Visit taumataarowai.govt.nz to read the report.

Wai ora. Tangata ora.

Healthy water. Healthy people.

For more information

Join us at the Water New Zealand webinars each month where we’ll update you on what you need to know and what’s ahead. There’s always plenty of time to ask questions too. Register at waternz.org.nz

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Arawhata wetland complex to be one of the largest in the country

The project involves creating a constructed wetland complex on a former dairy farm, located adjacent to Punahau. The constructed wetland will be designed to filter phosphorus bound to sediment and reduce the concentrations of nitrogen through de-nitrification in ground and surface water before it reaches the lake.

Once completed, the Arawhata wetland complex is expected to be one of the largest constructed wetlands in the country, creating improved habitats for native bird and fish species, along with better environmental outcomes through nutrient reduction in the Arawhata Stream, and in turn within Punahau.

A Governance Group has been established to oversee the delivery of the project, with representation from the Lake Horowhenua Trust, Muaūpoko Tribal Authority, Te Rūnanga o Raukawa, Horowhenua District Council, Ministry for the Environment, and Horizons Regional Council.

The Governance Group is aware of concerns expressed by neighbouring property owners around existing drainage. Co-chair Rachel Keedwell explains that these issues have been at the forefront of the planning to date, and will continue to be, as the design moves into the consent design phase.

“The current conceptual design contains a number of measures to manage groundwater effects and surface water flows within the wetland complex property. These have been and will continue to be further refined as we receive feedback from surrounding landowners and members of the community” says Rachel.

“In addition, the project team have engaged with groundwater experts to liaise with neighbouring farmers and landowners to identify any risks, and source remediation measures if necessary.” Horizons freshwater and partnerships manager Logan Brown explains that while surface water levels have been high over the past 18 months, this is due to rain and runoff, high lake levels in Punahau, and highly elevated groundwater levels pushing water up to the surface.

“Groundwater levels in the catchment are ultimately controlled by the lake level, as there is only so much water that can leave the lake via the Hōkio Stream. As the lake level rises due to high rainfall, so too do the surrounding groundwater levels,” he says.

“Furthermore, the Ōhau River feeds the groundwater into the lake and therefore

Once completed, the Arawhata wetland complex will create improved habitats for native bird and fish species, along with better environmental outcomes through nutrient reduction in the Arawhata Stream, and in turn within Punahau.

the capture zone for water to the lake is massive.

“So overall, when we have higher levels of rainfall – as has been the case over the past 18 months – the only option is for the groundwater levels to rise.”

The good news is that groundwater can be managed within the wetland complex property once the wetland is constructed.

“The wetland will raise shallow groundwater levels within the property. However, drains around the outside of the complex will keep the water contained.

“The design also has the potential to reduce existing drainage issues outside the property. One thing is for sure, it certainly

The Arawhata wetland complex is one of a suite of actions to address water quality in the Punahau (Lake Horowhenua) catchment.

won’t make it any worse. Horizons has also not undertaken any construction to date which could have contributed to the groundwater levels experienced in the past year.”

Rachel iterates that, in addition to water quality improvements, the project seeks to enhance the cultural and ecological values of the lake and its surrounds.

“It’s important to note that we are doing our utmost to ensure positive solutions for the ecology in the area, landowners and our wider community,” she says.

Dean Wilson of Lake Horowhenua Trust wants to see the mana restored to Punahau.

“This taonga holds pride of place for iwi and the Horowhenua community. Muaūpoko Tribal Authority are onsite assisting with monitoring and some of the current works required to advance and improve the Arawhata wetland project overall,” he says.

“Muaūpoko are providing the mātauranga for the Arawhata project which is based on

their ancestral lands and support the wetland design, monitoring and maintenance planning required. They also have a representative on the project team.”

Horizons has submitted an application to be able to use the fast-track consent process, and if successful, will submit an application later this year. In the meantime, work continues on the consent design, incorporating community feedback received to date.

“A fast-track consent allows us to progress with the work at a much faster pace,” says Rachel.

“That said, the process involved with a fast-track consent is just as robust as a normal consent, if not more so. We

do want to allay concerns that it is not a shortcut in terms of assessing the effects.

“We’re optimistically hoping to start initial preparation works in the first half of next year.” In the meantime, the lease for the land purchased for the wetland project has recently been through a tender process and awarded to a cut and carry and dry stock operation.

“Even in the short term, changing the land use from dairy to dry stock reduces the level of nutrients entering the catchment. This is a positive step to achieving our long-term goals.”

Article supplied by Horizons Regional Council.

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“The current conceptual design contains a number of measures to manage groundwater effects and surface water flows within the wetland complex property."

New flow gate for Robson Lagoon

The wetland and Lake Tuakitoto area has been recognised as a ‘regionally significant wetland’ for its high diversity of indigenous flora and fauna, hosting a range of nationally or internationally rare or threatened species, including about 50 bird species and also threatened galaxiid (whitebait) populations.

The area is considered a regionally and nationally important habitat for waterfowl, waders, swamp birds and galaxiids and is a remaining example of what was once a widespread type of wetland.

Robson Lagoon is in the Clutha-Mata Au catchment, about seven kilometres northeast of Balclutha. It is a key part at the head of the regionally significant Lake Tuakitoto Wetland complex, which is within the Otago Regional Council’s catchment of the Lower Clutha Flood Protection and Drainage Scheme.

The lagoon, lake and wetlands is described as a rush and sedge swamp, lowland lake, with an artificial water level.

Council manager engineering Michelle Mifflin says the aim of the project is to change the flow management system around the wetland to encourage the normal flows of tributaries Lovells Stream and

Stoney Creek which enter Robson Lagoon, while managing drainage in the area.

She says the project not only upgrades ageing infrastructure, which will assist with water management around the 566-hectare lagoon complex but will also enhance protection of its natural and ecological values.

“The new flow management structures will allow for sustainable habitat water levels and flows and also provide for the safe passage of native fish with a small tunnel for them,” she says.

Fish have free passage when the gate is open, but there is also now a tunnel/drain for them to use during low flows.

The gate is opened when there are higher flows from the tributaries, with water diverted past the lagoon through a drain into the lake, and in lower flows the gate is closed and the tributaries can flow into and replenish the lagoon.

An old, gated culvert and other ageing structures have been removed and replaced with the new gate, a lagoon (vehicle track) crossing and a separate sandbag weir have been upgraded and a flap-

A new automatic flow gate has been installed and commissioned at Robson Lagoon near Balclutha, which will enhance its natural values and offer improved land drainage.

PHOTO COURTESY OF: ORC/TIM WARE

gate culvert at the confluence of Stony Creek has also been installed.

“This project will go a long way to providing certainty in maintaining minimum water levels for the wetland and also provide adequate land drainage.”

The solar powered flow gate, and its valve actuator, will automatically control the water flow levels, by raising and lowering the gate, which will keep the lagoon at a steady level, she says.

Habitat for nationally and internationally rare or threatened species

There is a highly diverse ‘mosaic’ of vegetation types and wildlife habitats in the area, hosting nationally or internationally rare or threatened species or communities, she says.

The area provides roosting, feeding and breeding habitat for the threatened Australasian Bittern and Banded Dotterel and is also a breeding area for the uncommon Marsh Crake, Spotless Crake, and South Island Fernbird.

It also supports a significant proportion of the national population of Mallard and New Zealand Shoveller/Kuruwhengi, Grey Teal and Black Swan.

“All these bird species breed here. It’s also considered nationally important as a freshwater fishery habitat too. “

The area supports long and shortfin eels, whitebait/inaka, the common bully/pako as well as the giant kokopu galaxiid and freshwater mussels and offers a recreational fishery for perch and brown trout in some places.

Rachel says it also hosts the threatened plant species swamp nettle and Isolepis basilaris, which are present on swamp margins.

Project consultation

Also involved with the project and consultation has been the landowners, Aukaha, Fish and Game and the Department of Conservation.

Rachel says the area is significant for Kai Tahu for cultural and spiritual beliefs, values and uses, including mahika kai and waahi taoka.

Lake Tuakitoto and surrounding wetlands perform a valuable hydrological function, serving as a natural flood ponding area; an otherwise integral part of the Lower Clutha Flood Control and Drainage Scheme, Rachel says.

Consent was approved in 2020 and the conditions imposed include maintaining fish passage and a baseline assessment of fish populations, plus ongoing monitoring and reporting.

Aside from the flow gate, other project works included installation of a flap gate culvert at Stoney Creek, replacement of a sandbag weir at the lagoon’s eastern side and the replacement of the existing culvert vehicle crossing with new box culverts.

Alongside input from the council’s engineering team, the work was completed by Fulton Hogan, Calibre, Ryder Consulting, and Mitchell Daysh.

Article provided by Otago Regional Council

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Water sector storm recovery: are we future proofed?

The impact of the Auckland Anniversary weekend storms, closely followed by Cyclone Gabrielle, have required immediate and decisive responses.

While water services experienced extensive damage and disruption, the water sector must also consider the longer-term inevitability of more intense storm events, and the likelihood of repeated episodes of flooding (and other damage) due to climate change.

The scale of this year’s storm events is unprecedented. Cumulative rainfall volume in Auckland (Figure 1a) is well beyond anything seen in the last 60 years. Insurance costs exceed all previous weather-related insurance pay-outs combined (Figure 1b).

Research shows that rainfall intensity over Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne has increased by around 30 percent and is around four times more likely than it would have been in the absence of climate change.

While we talk about reducing risk, or increasing resilience, in many places our resilience is in fact reducing as we increase development activity in areas at risk.

An increased call for managed retreat has emerged – primarily because it represents a response that truly reduces risk exposure.

We frequently hear the call to ‘build back better’ – but it is not often clear what ‘better’ really means.

Often it appears to be code for ‘rebuild stronger or bigger in the same location’, when we may really be needing to ask the tougher underlying question – do we really need to (re)build anything here at all?

This is particularly critical if the rebuild is anticipated to occur in the same at-risk location.

Of course, when it comes to delivery of essential infrastructure, there is often the requirement to ensure continuity of services.

The nature of human nature

Following significant disruption, the focus is, rightly, on the Response and Recovery components of the ‘4Rs’. In between events, there is the ability to take a more measured approach to address the Reduction and Readiness elements.

In the wake of this year’s flooding events, Chris Cameron, Matt Balkham, Chris Thurston – members of the Water New Zealand Climate Change Special Interest Group, and practitioners who collectively have decades of experience in climate adaptation, shine a spotlight on the need for longer-term proactive climate adaptation action.

Figure 1a. Annual cumulative rainfall at Auckland Airport. Source: MetService.

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Figure 1b. Annual insurance pay-outs for weather related events. Source: ICNZ.

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This year’s events emphasise the need for a comprehensive risk reduction focus that ensures that as a nation we are ready for more major events that will inevitably come. In other words, moving from being reactive to being proactive.

Of course, many organisations have been considering these aspects for some time. It may now be appropriate for major infrastructure providers, together with all levels of government, to collectively think more strategically about longer-term resilience.

This could avoid implementing costly responses now that may prove to be maladaptive longer term, or that may lock us in to maintaining the status quo.

Some key questions to ask include:

• Should we rebuild anything before fully understanding its risk exposure? And how should we stress test our investment decisions against a range of plausible futures?

• How are we considering what was there before or what should be there for future generations?

• What lessons can we take from previous recovery/rebuild programmes?

• How are we including future climate change projections into our decisions to ensure our infrastructure is resilient?

• What opportunities do we have to rethink how we develop and manage our networks, and how we structure finance and decision making?

• How can water infrastructure support the most effective community resilience, and does this lead or follow community preferences?

• What might it take to make a step-change in the resilience of our communities and infrastructure?

• How can we develop dynamic and adaptive adaptation approaches, that allow us to alter course as and when conditions change?

• What support for these activities is needed from central and local government?

We ask these questions from an infrastructure perspective, but the greatest resilience will come from the community itself. As awareness and understanding of water services and the impacts of climate change become more apparent, the greatest success will come from working together.

The scale of the challenge

At a project level it is important to understand how any given response will affect adaptive capacity and either increase or reduce risk exposure. However, those types of assessments should not be undertaken in isolation.

A systems approach across all scales is needed – from catchment, to regional, to national – to ensure consistency with wider strategic direction.

We must also work together with mana whenua, local communities and across a wide range of infrastructure disciplines to integrate land use planning and incorporate social, cultural and environmental values into our rebuilds and the direction of our future development.

In some circumstances we have to act immediately, and it may be appropriate to consider short-term or temporary measures to buy us time to develop the right long-term approach for communities.

However, such short-term decisions should be made deliberately, should avoid locking in the same potential issues we have just seen and should not become, by default, the long-term solution.

Lessons can be learnt from previous events, such as the Christchurch red-zoning or the move away from Matatā. However, these examples are post-event responses, and it is now crucial that we consider pre-emptive (and most likely more cost-effective) strategic approaches, including the

need for large scale managed retreat from areas at the highest risk. Reinvestment away from existing assets will need to link closely to asset renewal programmes in order to be most cost effective.

Assessing resilience and risk exposure

For those faced with water infrastructure rebuild decisions, there is a need to support that process by defining the key information, gaps, and challenges.

Examples include:

• How critical are the services supplied from that infrastructure?

• What level of investment in resilience is warranted?

• Do we understand the nature of the risk and how that risk may change over time?

• What tools are available to assess our risk exposure (and level of resilience) over time and at a range of scales?

• Can we take immediate learnings, such as flood levels and the use of standardised assets that can be replaced more readily in an emergency?

• How fit is our infrastructure to deal with another Cyclone Gabrielle scale event and what decisions would we need to make if such an event was expected to hit our region?

• For how long do we anticipate the need for this asset/operation in this location?

The longer-term approach to areas that are high risk and may be considered for managed retreat is yet to be fully developed.

While Government is still working on a Climate Adaptation Bill to outline an approach for managed retreat, the three-tier category system to manage homes damaged from Cyclone Gabrielle has been rolled out. Under this system, residential areas are tagged as either low, medium or high risk.

Homes in the high-risk category should not be rebuilt on their current sites. This ‘triage’ approach may also be appropriate for use beyond housing – such as across the infrastructure sector.

However, there is a risk that short-term decisions may be made in the absence of complete information – or without careful consideration of other values of a given area (e.g., cultural, community, or environmental).

That light at the end of the tunnel

Like most, infrastructure providers will benefit by effectively preparing for the ‘new normal’ – ongoing change in the climate.

Adaptive approaches that effectively build in climate risk considerations – and how they are expected to change over time – will evolve. These are likely to need to re-allocate budgets and adjust levels of service away from the highest risk areas.

Indeed, the ongoing provision of services in some areas will need to be assessed and the interaction between long term risk reduction and community resilience in extreme events discussed.

We are currently at a critical time in taking effective climate change action.

The infrastructure sector has the potential to transform, thus determining the community response. Or, if broad community aspirations can be effectively determined (e.g., selecting areas that may be suitable for managed retreat), then the water infrastructure sector may be able to proceed with clear direction and a high level of community support.

Dr Chris Cameron is climate change lead/technical director at Pattle Delamore Partners, Matt Balkham is business lead, water resources at Jacobs, and Chris Thurston is head of sustainability at Watercare Services.

What will economic regulation mean for water service providers?

The passing of the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill will move water service providers into unfamiliar and challenging territory. This phase of the reforms involves the Commerce Commission promoting efficient outcomes by modifying the management and delivery of water services through rules and incentives. This article explores some of the features of economic regulation that will be applied and the resulting changes that will be enforced, so providers can start to understand their impact and prepare to adapt. By Andrew Stevenson.

By looking at the controls already applied to organisations regulated by the Commission, it is possible to work out the likely requirements the water sector will face. There will be new approaches and concepts introduced to the sector that will not fit with how providers are used to operating.

Complicating this is that the Commission will have to grapple with the complexity of the water sector, which is higher than that of the industries the regulatory framework was developed in. It will also have to account for issues like the requirements of Te Mana o te Wai in its enabling legislation that do not align with the framework it has used so far.

The process of working out how to fit water services into the preferred regulatory approach and enforcing this change will create tension between providers and the Commission, as it has in previous control setting cases.

A common reaction from those regulated by the Commission is that they do not see the reasons for what it is making them do, nor why it should apply to them.

This is because the Commission is a different type of regulator and decision maker to those that providers have known before, both in how it operates and the regulation it applies. Its purpose is not to support providers in their work, nor to make things easier for them. Instead, it is to change how providers act, by copying the impacts of a competitive environment to create benefits for consumers.

This means there will be a significant shift in how providers operate, at all levels in their organisations. The way things have been done will be discouraged in the future.

While delivering these changes and focussing on competitive market outcomes, the Commission will act independently and not allow other considerations to sway its decisions.

To preserve this independence, it maintains a strict separation from those it regulates, with everything done in writing and public disclosure of all materials.

The processes it uses and requires providers to follow are highly prescriptive and focussed on delivering legally correct decisions. Rules and decisions are based on precedent and the principles developed in 20 years of regulatory economics practice, which will not be aligned with the experience of local government.

Providers will need to fully engage with the development of these to optimise outcomes and to understand their implications.

The Commission believes that its rules and decisions provide certainty, and this certainty delivers the required outcomes to consumers. It also believes that a monopoly will naturally act to reduce benefits for their consumers and so providers cannot be relied upon to deliver good outcomes, despite their public service ethos.

As a result, the rules and decisions it makes are not up for negotiation, do not allow for ‘sensible’ compromises, are not intended to be considered reasonable by providers, and will be detailed at a level well beyond any rules that currently apply. These will constrain providers more than they are used to and forms the basis for changing behaviour.

Andrew Stevenson.

Because the rules are written to deliver regulatory outcomes, every case where providers do not follow them results in enforcement action.

This will start with a detailed investigation into how and why the provider’s behaviour led to the rules not being followed, including what decisions were taken and the evidence they were based on.

The findings from this, and a provider’s past behaviour, feed into the Commission’s judgement. This may include compliance advice, public warnings highlighting areas for management or governance to improve, setting obligations to deliver improvements, and penalties.

Its record shows it is not reluctant to use these methods, will readily take providers to court, and has won in practically all cases.

Aside from making rules, the Commission also will make decisions on levels of funding and performance, which is called determining the price-quality path. The Commission will not be using local government aligned reporting, long-term planning, or annual planning requirements as it does this.

Due to the recent changes to the reforms, and possible future variations, the exact approach that will be used to make the pricequality decisions is not clear.

The original intent was for each supplier to have an individually assessed expenditure allowance and quality standards set by the Commission, based on a provider’s comprehensive investment proposal. This was possible with only four entities, but the Commission will not be able to do this for 10 or more different providers due the level of resource needed for the detailed assessments.

However, the legislation drafted gives the Commission a great deal of flexibility in its approach.

The most likely option now is that basic financial models are developed and these, using information collected by the Commission, produce a default expenditure forecast for each

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provider. This decision says how much capital and operational expenditure is allowed and so sets the revenue that can be collected from customers in each of the years of the regulatory period.

A regulatory period will start at three years in length but could be as long as six years, and there is no requirement these align with Council long term plan setting. Providers must keep within the expenditure limits or face enforcement action.

Unlike with the current annual plan process there will be no yearly readjustment to account for changes. The price path can only be re-opened under predefined extraordinary circumstances.

A supplier underestimating their future costs is not considered an acceptable reason and, as in a competitive market, they will be forced to find efficiencies in order to cope.

The Commission will also determine the minimum reliability requirements and other levels of service that consumers can expect. Providers should expect these will be different to performance measures they have previously used, or those set by other organisations.

Failing to meet the quality standard will also result in enforcement action and, under certain circumstances, providers may also have to compensate anyone affected by poor performance. This prevents providers from cutting back on service delivery as their constrained funding starts to impact decision making.

The trade-off for the change in approach to accommodate the increased number of providers is that any special circumstances or needs of a supplier cannot be considered, nor are unexpected challenges or areas of uncertainty easily addressed.

Also, there will be limited ability to have independent oversight of large projects and less opportunity for community input compared to the original intent of the regulation. This could be changed if the Commission was given sufficient resources to accommodate the additional work this requires.

In the event the default price-quality decision does not meet a

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supplier’s needs they can apply for a customised decision from the Commission.

A customised investment proposal for just water services will be larger, more complex, and require more evidence, consultation, and time than a full council long term plan. The process is very rigorous and there are no guarantees the supplier will get what they are asking for.

There will be a limit on the number of these proposals that can be progressed, because of the limitation in the Commission’s resources.

The Commission will want more data than is currently available as it makes its decisions, assesses if providers are meeting the purpose of the regulation, reports on performance or areas for improvement, and sees if any rules have been broken.

This will look more like the Request for Information (RFI) from the Department of Internal Affairs than any current reporting. However, it will go further than the RFI in scope, with a lot more financial reporting, and it will be required every year.

The Commission will develop its own definitions and requirements for reporting rather than adopt those in use by providers or specified in other Acts, because this will better deliver its legislative purpose. Providers will have to change their systems and processes to deliver these new obligations.

Additionally, the Commission can also require providers to produce any records that they hold or develop any report it wants. There will be no excuse not to have information or fail to meet the reporting requirements, which includes directors having to certify that all the information is correct, complete, and all the rules have been followed.

The fact that this may mean the duplication of other reporting is not considered relevant by the Commission, as their focus is on delivering the purpose of the economic regulation. For example, providers will have to publish asset management plans and documents that meet the Commission’s specifications, which will be different to the those set out in the Water Services Entities Act.

A final source of change is that the Commission, as an economic regulator with a focus on efficient market outcomes, cares a great deal about how finances are handled and will write its rules to suit its purpose.

This will not align with local government or similar financial systems as the regulator is focused on different outcomes and applies different principles, despite what providers may consider reasonable or necessary.

These include a principle of capital maintenance that establishes the financial approach that is applied along with the expectation of debt funded investment which is returned to the lender with a profit margin.

As a result, providers will need to adapt their systems and

processes to meet the following changes:

• Asset values are reset by the Commission at the start of regulation. Every organisation regulated so far has had the book value of its assets written down, as consumers should only pay efficient costs and monopolies are not considered efficient.

• Development contributions are subtracted from the value of the assets they are enabling, as are other funding sources like subsidies, grants, and capital contributions. Similarly, vested assets will have a zero value. Consumers will not be charged for assets that are paid for by someone else.

• Depreciation is not kept by a supplier to pay for the renewal of assets or other projects, instead it is automatically returned as part of the operational expenditure allowance. Renewals are part of the expenditure and revenue decision made by the Commission.

• Asset economic lives are fixed by the Commission, and there is not a regular asset revaluation by providers to reflect current replacement prices. There may be inflation indexing of the asset base, but this is a Commission decision based on its judgement of the sector.

• Alliances, partnerships, and other agreements or arrangements providers have made will attract a high degree of scrutiny to ensure that efficient outcomes are produced and there is no opportunity to sidestep regulatory requirements.

• Charging consumers for an asset can only start once it is providing service to consumers, providers will have to account for and pay interest during construction. The Commission sets and updates the weighted average cost of capital that all providers must use for all interest and time value of money calculations.

• There is no ability to charge consumers more than the revenue target set, even if this is to recover any shortfall from a previous year. Total annual budgets are set once and not revised each year. The imposition of economic regulation will significantly impact the way providers are allowed to operate.

Based on the Commission’s previous decisions, the general shape of this reform and flow-on effects can be predicted.

Providers should be prepared for the challenges these changes will bring and ensure they have sufficient capacity to understand the new requirements and adapt to their new environment.

Andrew Stevenson started in economic regulation as a network engineer, assessing and responding to the Commission investigation, followed by the setting of control on the gas pipeline sector. He then worked as a senior advisor at the Commission, involved in carrying out the regulatory advisory functions around network infrastructure businesses, including setting and running an individual pricequality path (IPP), assessing major capex investment proposals, reviewing Input methodologies, assessing customised price path (CPP) proposals, and setting information disclosure determinations.

A customised investment proposal for just water services will be larger, more complex, and requires more evidence, consultation, and time than a full council long term plan. The process is very rigorous and there are no guarantees the supplier will get what they are asking for.

www.nzcontrols.co.nz

WaterSmart brings world’s FIRST in-home water-recycling system into New Zealand

The world’s first consumer-friendly water recycling system has arrived in New Zealand and is being showcased around the country by exclusive New Zealand importer and distributor WaterSmart.

Hydraloop® is set to change the way people use water in New Zealand. It uses water twice, reducing total in-home water consumption by up to 45 per cent. It does this by recycling and cleaning water from showers, baths, and washing machines, using a revolutionary, patented six-step process.

The treated water can then be used again for toilet flushing, washing machines, garden irrigation, and topping up swimming pools, providing clean, safe, and disinfected water that meets the highest international standards for commercial and residential uses.

“Why are we flushing our toilets with drinking water? It’s crazy. At WaterSmart we are all about enabling people to realise the true value of water, our most precious taonga. Hydraloop means we can use water twice. It is a game-changer for our country, paving the way for mass water recycling in New Zealand.”

– Andrew Olsen, Co-founder and Managing Director, WaterSmart

New maps reveal places at risk from sea-level rise

New maps from NIWA and the Deep South National Science Challenge show areas that could be inundated by extreme coastal flooding. They show a large storm-tide with the sea-level rise that we are likely to see with climate change.

NIWA’s chief scientist for coasts and estuaries, Dr Scott Stephens, says that these maps will help shape decisions on how we adapt to sea-level rise.

“Coastal flooding is a global hazard, with rising sea levels already causing more frequent and intense flooding along many coasts. We have created maps that help identify the changing risk to land, property, and infrastructure from rising seas, at a regional and national scale.

“We hope this information will raise awareness and help councils and government to know where to conduct detailed investigations when developing adaptation strategies to protect our coastal communities.”

The maps are also intended to help the financial industry, national infrastructure, and service providers to risk assess their portfolios.

“It’s difficult to make decisions about the future if you can’t see it – these maps provide a window into the future.”

Coastal flooding is particularly likely when high tides, storm surges and large waves occur simultaneously. At these times, low-lying areas are inundated when high seas overtop or even break barriers, and cause rivers to back up inland.

This can destroy property, infrastructure, and be a danger to life, as well as having severe impacts on the natural environment and ecosystems.

“With much of our major infrastructure and roughly 65 percent of New Zealanders living within five kilometres of the coast, this is an issue that will impact many of us, so we must be aware of what’s coming and be prepared to adapt.

“These maps are not designed for assessing exposure to individual properties, however. Many councils have more detailed

maps for that purpose. The advantage is that they fill in gaps for areas of the country that don’t currently have this data available, they provide nationwide information, and they include many scenarios of sea-level rise.”

The maps were used in new research that examined New Zealand’s increasing exposure to coastal flooding with sea-level rise (read here: https://rb.gy/j7rqy).

The research found that small amounts of sea-level rise will drive a rapid increase

in cumulative flooding from increasingly frequent coastal-flood events nationally, and 30 percent more land area would be regularly flooded after 0.3 metre relative sea-level rise.

“By 2065, there could be 0.4 metre of sealevel rise, based on the current trajectory, or sooner where the landmass is subsiding.”

The maps can be viewed, and data downloaded at https://rb.gy/8iv39.

Article provided by NIWA

Example of the extreme coastal flood maps. Mission Bay, Auckland. Pink = present-day 1% annual exceedance probability (AEP) coastal flood exposure. Yellow = +1 m Relative Sea Level Rise. Blue = +2 m Relative Sea Level Rise.

Antarctica’s deep ocean circulation is slowing down

Research has found deep ocean circulation around Antarctica has already slowed by 30 percent since the 1990s, confirming predictions from recent modelling it may be about to collapse.

Melting glaciers release freshwater into the ocean, and this water is less dense than salt water – so it reduces the amount of water sinking near Antarctica, slowing the ocean currents. Slowing of the deep circulation could have impacts for the climate, sea level rise, and ocean ecosystems. A recent study projected a slowdown of the Antarctic overturning by 40 percent by 2050, and this new research confirms this change is already occurring.

Science Media Centre asked local experts to comment on the research.

Dr Christian Ohneiser, Department of Geology, University of Otago

“Antarctica Bottom Water (AABW) forms where the ice meets the ocean around the Antarctic margin. The super cold, salty, dense waters flow into the ocean abyss (+4000m) out of sight and out of mind, but their influence is felt around the world because they drive the global ocean circulation system which redistributes heat and nutrients around the globe.

“Gunn et al used measurements made during oceanographic surveys and from moorings which monitor the salinity (saltiness), temperature, ocean current speed, and oxygenation of ocean water. The work paints a grim picture that the production of these vital, dense cold waters is slowing most likely because of fresh water input from melting ice.

“The addition of fresh water makes the Antarctica Bottom Water more buoyant (less dense) meaning they cannot sink into the deep ocean as easily and drive the global circulation.

“A slightly older study by Aoki et al (2020) showed that the production of Antarctica Bottom Water is variable and its properties probably change over decades making it

difficult to detect long terms trends.

“The Southern Ocean is one of the least instrumented and studied oceans in the world with only a few decades of data; the record is patchy at best. The work of Gunn et al shows that we need to pay more attention to this important but isolated part of the world.

“We need to invest more effort into learning how the Southern Ocean works, with more oceanographic monitoring, paleoceanographic reconstructions and ocean models which have only recently become powerful enough to model the complexity of ‘warm’ ocean waters interacting with Antarctica’s frigid ice and atmosphere.”

Professor Craig Stevens, NIWA, and University of Auckland Joint Graduate School in Coastal and Marine Science

“A lot of attention is paid to the influence of Antarctic ice melt affecting global sea level rise. This remains important, but a related aspect is how the freshening of surface waters around Antarctica from the melt is influencing injection of cold, dense oxygenated waters into the global ocean system. It is a subtle interplay of meltwater, wind and sea ice formation.

“This change in oxygenation will shift the way the planet’s oceans work for centuries to come.

“A key aspect of the paper is its use of direct measurement of ocean changes. This is difficult in the waters around Antarctica because it is hard to access and requires very expensive ship-based work. This study shows why this expenditure is worth it. It is also motivation to extend these observations more widely around Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to improve certainty around what is the long-term trend in ocean properties as opposed to shorter-term variability.

“The work is another clear signpost that

reducing greenhouse gas emissions now is vital to having our future world as close to our present one as is possible.”

Dr Ariaan Purich, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University and the ARC Special Research Initiative Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future

“There has been a recent focus on observed and modelled changes occurring around the Antarctic margins, because changes in this region can have profound impacts on global climate and sea level.

“Our understanding of the processes occurring around the Antarctic margins is hindered by the limited observations of this remote and extreme environment. In this new study, Gunn and colleagues provide important observational evidence of a freshening of the ocean around the Antarctic coast, caused by melting ice shelves. They make use of key observational evidence, supplemented with modelling to fill observational gaps, to link this coastal freshening to a reduction in the deep ocean circulation.

“This new study is significant because alongside a recent landmark modelling study, it provides further support including observational evidence that the melting Antarctic ice sheet and shelves will impact the global ocean overturning circulation, with important impacts to the ocean uptake of heat and carbon.

“While they might seem far away, changes occurring around the Antarctic margins will affect the climate and sea levels experienced here in Australia for decades to come.”

Read the paper, Recent Reduced Abyssal Overturning and Ventilation in the Australian Antarctic Basin, at nature.com/articles/s41558023-01667-8

Summer storms: The road to recovery

Watercare felt the impact of the record-breaking deluges when landslides took out its watermains and wastewater pipes and engulfed a water treatment plant. Several major wastewater pump stations were flooded and unable to operate in the days that followed.

With the immediate response under control – water restored to the 3000 households who lost it, and critical pump stations up and running again – the focus soon shifted to recovery.

Watercare’s general manager asset upgrades and renewals, Suzanne Lucas, is heading up the flood recovery team.

“More than 180 of our sites incurred damage in these storms, so mopping up the pieces is a colossal job that will take quite some time – possibly up to two years,” she says.

“With such a whopping to-do list, we’ve had to focus heavily on prioritisation. Anything that has an impact to our customers, or impacts the environment, goes straight to the top of our list.

“For example, where slips took out our wastewater pipes, our crews worked really hard to put in temporary fixes as soon as possible so we could put a stop to any overflows to the environment. In many cases this meant setting up overland bypass pipes between manholes, with pumping powered by generators. Generators are not only costly to hire, but they can obviously be noisy for neighbours, so the next priority became finding alternative power sources so we could do without the generators and minimise any disruption.”

By early June, a large majority of the temporary fixes had been refined, with just a couple of generators still powering wastewater bypasses.

Overcoming access difficulties

Simply accessing the repair sites has been challenging, with many of them on steep and muddy slopes.

“Access has been one of the major issues we’ve faced in clearing slips and getting repair work underway.

“Up in the Waitākere Ranges, where slips have damaged our Upper Nihotupu raw watermain and put the dam out of service, we’ve had to chopper in small excavators to clear the slips and allow repair work to be completed.”

Watercare environmental assets manager James Talbot says, while the weather has been challenging, he hopes to have the dam back in service later in winter.

“When accessing sites along the Upper Nihotupu raw watermain, we have strict protocols we need to follow to keep our teams safe. Given the risk of land instability, there are rainfall and wind thresholds that mean we can’t send people in if they’re exceeded. For example, if there’s more than 50mm of rain in 48 hours work can’t proceed.

“With the weather we’ve had this year, we’ve had some weeks where we couldn’t send people in at all.”

Meanwhile, over on the North Shore, Suzanne says access issues have prompted more out-of-the box thinking.

“A huge slip at the back of Birkenhead College sent trees and shrubbery tumbling down a really steep slope, and our wastewater pipe went with it.

“We put in a temporary bypass to reconnect the neighbouring properties, but when it came to stabilising the slope and burying a new wastewater pipe for a more robust solution, we needed to enlist some extra help.”

Cue, the ‘spider digger’.

“A walking excavator – commonly known as a spider digger –was the right tool for the job. A normal excavator couldn’t have coped with the steep site, whereas the spider digger can move around quickly and with minimal environmental impact. I’m sure we’ll see more of it as our permanent repairs progress.”

Five months on from the back-to-back floods and cyclone that claimed lives, destroyed homes, and played havoc with the city’s critical infrastructure, Auckland still bears the scars.

Main image: An excavator had to be flown in by helicopter to clear slips along the Upper Nihotupu Dam raw watermain. Above: Watercare stakeholder coordinators Paayal Patel, left, and Hannah Retimana spent a lot of time visiting customers impacted by the summer storms.

Five minutes down the road in Beach Haven, where a massive slip by the cliffs knocked out yet another wastewater pipe, materials and equipment arrived by barge at Charcoal Bay Beach. These were timed with moon phases to coincide with the highest tides.

A temporary bypass had been collecting most of the wastewater flows, but there were 10 homes that couldn’t be connected to the initial set-up.

“We worked really hard to get remedial work done before winter because the people in these 10 homes had been using portaloos, and we wanted to reconnect them as soon as possible.

“Our team had to first secure the area to avoid further slips and then get cracking on a new temporary pipe bridge and a retaining wall to protect an exposed pipeline.

Main image: Watercare flood recovery programme manager Monica Paterson, left, and Watercare asset upgrades and renewals general manager Suzanne Lucas at the slip site behind Birkenhead College.

Right: Spider digger at work in Birkenhead.

Storm Water Overflow Screens

“The weather made this incredibly mucky work, but we were so happy to have it done by King’s Birthday Weekend and to be able to give these customers the good news that they could use their own toilets again.”

Extra care for impacted customers

The volume and spread of the issues Aucklanders faced in the aftermath of the extreme weather events prompted Watercare to invest in more people to engage directly with these customers.

Watercare major projects stakeholder engagement manager Danielle Hamilton says in the weeks following the storm and cyclone, the company’s customer services team was overwhelmed.

“We realised we needed to take the pressure off our normal customer touchpoints, so we worked quickly to set up a dedicated flood recovery stakeholder engagement team. We managed to entice two of our summer interns, Hannah Retimana and Paayal Patel, to return to Watercare part-time, and arranged a secondment for Carolyn Bell to join us from our faults team.

“Having a dedicated team meant we were able to provide a higher level of care for our customers living in areas where we

had temporary bypasses in place, and to keep them updated as we progressed with improvements.”

Hannah and Paayal spent most of their first month out and about, door-knocking customers and doing letterbox drops to let people know what was happening in their neighbourhoods.

“People were really happy to see a face, instead of just an email in their inbox,” Paayal says. “We built really good relationships with people and we were able to get a lot of things fixed for them. That was really satisfying.”

Danielle says the resilience shown by these customers has been heartwarming.

“Some of our customers have put up with a lot of inconvenience while we’ve worked through the issues in their area – especially our Rosecamp Road residents who were on portaloos for a very long time. For the most part, they’ve been incredibly understanding and accommodating with us.”

Carolyn couldn’t agree more: “When I called one lady to say we were removing her portaloo, she was thanking us for all the work we’d done. To be in their predicament – to have seen a big chunk of their land slide into the sea – and still have such a positive attitude is so impressive.”

Article provided by Watercare

Materials and machinery to repair slip damage at Rosecamp Road, Beach Haven, had to be taken in and out by barge.

Life without access to clean water and hygiene

Thirty-two-year-old Rosita de Aroujo is mother to five children under 11. She lives in Lesuata, a village high up in the mountains of Timor-Leste.

Lesuata’s big, lush mountains are beautiful, but cause the village to be isolated, only connected to the rest of Timor-Leste by a rugged dirt road which becomes flooded in the rainy season.

Lesuata does not have a clean water source, so Rosita walks a steep and slippery path down the mountain to collect water for her family. She carries two jerry cans on her head, one in each hand, and six on the back of a horse that she leads. Sometimes her children will help, often bathing in the creek while they’re there.

The journey back up the mountain once the jerry cans are full is the hardest part.

“In a day I have to collect water two times, in the morning and afternoon,” she says.

Though she makes the trip twice a day, Rosita does not have enough water to cater for her family’s needs.

With no water in the village, they are still using a traditional toilet, which is essentially a hole in the ground. They try to save some of their daily water for handwashing, but there isn’t always enough.

“I think if the water is closer to our house it is better and we feel happy and it is easy for us to build our own toilet.”

Having a sanitary toilet and clean water and soap for handwashing is a vital part of preventing diarrhoeal diseases, particularly for children. One child under five dies every

two minutes from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and toilets.

After spending hours every day collecting water, Rosita still has to look after her children, help her husband in their farm, and complete other household jobs. This leaves her with very little time to do the things she loves, like spending quality time with her family, or playing volleyball with her neighbours.

Communities thrive with access to water

In Beremana village, just a short distance across the mountains from Lesuata, WaterAid

• Almost 20 percent of Timor-Leste’s rural population does not have access to at least basic drinking water;

• Seven in 10 people do not have access to proper hygiene;

• Over 40 percent of the population of Timor-Leste does not have a decent toilet.

Australia installed a gravity fed water system and taps in the village a few years ago, as well as a flushable toilet.

Having access to clean water and toilets has been life-changing for the community.

The village women remember what it was like to walk long distances to collect water. They would travel down the mountain to the water source, then carry it back up to the village in heavy bamboo baskets.

“We are very happy because the water source is close to us now. We have more time for household work and cooking, and now we can bath ourselves and our children more regularly.”

The women also say that having a clean water source in the village allows the children to be better prepared for school each day.

Travelling to collect water in the morning is a common reason children are late to school in Timor-Leste and all around the world. Beremana’s new water system means children arrive at school on time, well fed, well rested, and ready to learn.

A group of young boys travel to the creek in Lesuata to collect water.

PHOTO COURTESY OF: WATERAID, TARIQ HAWARI

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Innovative solutions to decontaminate water

“New Zealand’s water quality is quite short of the standards of where we should be when compared to other developed countries,” says associate professor Lokesh Padhye from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Lokesh has spent the past five years collaborating with Professor T Alan Hatton from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Professor Xiao Su from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to find new ways to tackle environmental pollution and clean up our waters.

The collaborative research has been funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Catalyst grant.

The research team are now focused on developing a portable device to remove contaminants from water, something that is especially relevant in the wake of troubling new findings that depict a gloomy picture of New Zealand’s water ecosystem.

A recent report from the Ministry for the Environment showed that almost 50 percent of our rivers are not suitable for activities like swimming due to the risk of infection from campylobacter.

In addition to pathogens, chemical contaminants can also get into our water from many different sources, says Lokesh. That includes agricultural runoffs, which commonly contain nutrients and pesticides that flow into rivers used for swimming, and impact fish and bird life.

“With New Zealand being an agricultural country, we hold that as a serious problem.”

It’s also common for PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’ to be found in wastewater, he says.

“Wastewater treatment plants are a primary source for some of these ‘forever chemicals’. This is relevant when treated wastewater is sourced for drinking water.

“The prime example is Auckland drawing water from the Waikato River, which has treated sewage from Hamilton and other upstream

towns. The Waikato River is highly polluted and contains not only PFAS but also pesticides, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and other potentially toxic compounds.

“Disinfection by-products are another category of contaminants, where the source is the disinfectant, like chlorine, that’s used for killing the pathogens. So you’re achieving the main task of killing the microbes, but the secondary reactions of the disinfectant reacting with the organics in water to form toxic compounds.

“Some of those compounds can have very high cancer-causing properties, and those can be formed in the drinking water distribution system due to residual disinfectants in our tap waters.”

The research team’s aim is to develop a portable device that can treat a range of different contaminants, rather than targeting a specific one. The devices would then be used to treat agricultural runoffs and wastewater-impacted source waters, as well as household drinking water.

The device relies on producing oxidising radicals that can decontaminate drinking water. All it needs is an electrical supply.

That could be especially useful for homes in Waiheke Island or some of New Zealand’s rural communities where rain tanks are used as a source of drinking water, says Rakesh.

“These tanks get contaminated because of falling leaves or bird poop, which increases the risk of infection.”

Producing a portable device that can be shared with rural households or our neighbours in the Pacific islands will result in water that’s safer to drink.

“That could have a huge impact on the well-being of our communities. If we could make these devices affordable, and easy to reuse, which is the next planned phase of the project, then we have a potentially game-changing solution.”

Article provided by the University of Auckland.

The state of our water ecosystem is a big concern for researchers.

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HIGH NUMBER OF STUDS

420 anchor studs per m² are an integral part of the liner

DURABLY SEALED SURFACES

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pull-out resistance for maximum safety

pull-out resistance for maximum safety

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WIDE PRODUCT RANGE

WIDE PRODUCT RANGE

Available in PE and PP in widths up to 5000 mm

WIDE PRODUCT RANGE

Available in PE and PP in widths up to 5000 mm

Available in PE and PP in widths up to 5000 mm

Available in PE and PP in widths up to 5000 mm

www.agru.at | @agruworld |

www.agru.at | @agruworld |

www.agru.at | @agruworld |

www.agru.at | @agruworld |

Going beyond the minimum to keep your water supply safe

By Scott Pearson,

We have a (relatively) new regulatory framework for drinking water and are all coming to terms with the nuances and requirements of it. Our first approach is usually to follow the drinking water quality assurance rules for the supply type and complexity for each water supply.

However, one then notes the wording under Section 1.3 of the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules 2022 (Released 25 July 2022): “The Rules set out minimum compliance requirements and drinking water suppliers may use or undertake additional measures, including the management of risks specifically identified in relation (to) their supplies, to ensure that water provided to consumers is safe to drink.”

What does this really mean? Do you have to do more than the rules all the time? What are specific risks to your supply?

How are these risks identified and what actions are required so that a supplier can meet the requirements of the Water Services Act 2021 where, “a drinking water supplier must ensure that the drinking water supplied by the supplier is safe” and, “a drinking water supplier must ensure that the drinking water supplied by the supplier complies with the drinking water standards”.

A simple observation is that smaller supplies are likely more at risk to follow the rules and then find that there are other issues that mean that water quality or quantity is compromised, with larger supplies more likely to have a higher level of design and hence understanding of the source.

So what are some of the key things to consider?

Handling solids with filtration systems

Cartridge filters are required for small supplies (25 to 100 people) and are likely to be used for medium supplies (100 to 500 people) to meet the requirements of the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules.

Cartridge filters are simple in that the only maintenance is the replacement of the cartridge when it becomes fouled (without even considering the sustainability of this practice!).

Our experience is that cartridge filters are best used for very clean source waters with a turbidity significantly less than 2NTU

as they become unsustainable as turbidity increases, initially from the high cost of frequent replacement, and then from fouling so quickly that the water quantity is compromised.

So if cartridges are not up to scratch for your water source, which is the case for many stream supplies, what is the next step up? A media type filter upstream of the cartridge filtration, or media filtration only (T2 supplies only) may be a solution.

But what type or size of media to use, what are the limitations of these units? Here are a few things to consider and understand:

• Media filters remove particulates by a number of mechanisms, straining being only one such mechanism, and removed material is fragile and is susceptible to sudden changes in flow. A sudden increase in flow can dislodge captured solids particles, creating a spike of dirty water in the filter outlet.

• Loading rates are even more important for waters that are not coagulated. From experience, a maximum loading rate of 5m/h should be used for these waters, which is significantly lower than what many vendors will rate their filters.

• Filters require backwashing to remove the dirty water – and where this waste stream goes needs consideration. Backwashing frequency will depend on water quality and may be substantial. There are definite limitations on cartridge filtration and media filtration on turbid (and non-coagulated waters) and these should be understood.

Some other options are to provide settling upstream to remove solids, or even consider a large tank with a floating outlet as considered in the acceptable solution for roof water.

Alternatively, a membrane system, either validated or nonvalidated, can provide a substantially more robust level of filtration, with the water passing through a very small physical barrier, and the filtered water quality having a very high level of solids removal, and high certainty of reliable performance.

These systems do have greater complexity, and will require frequent backwashing and less frequent chemical cleaning, however they have been proven to be maintainable, with a great example being the Whirinaki Water Supply, which has been in

senior associate - process engineering, water, Beca.

Scott Pearson

operation for over 20 years as a community run water supply, and which also operates off grid. Like a media filter, the waste stream water must be discharged somewhere safe.

Ultraviolet disinfection and peace of mind of certification

The QA Rules require certified UV disinfection, and we agree with this. A quick assessment of certified and non-certified models from the same manufacturer indicated that you can have four times the flow per unit of power for a non-certified version. This should ring alarm bells!

Ultraviolet transmittance (UVT)

How ‘clear’ water is for UV disinfection should be considered. Water may look quite clear but the absorbance at the germicidal wavelength (254nm) may compromise UV treatment (for smaller supplies, this is most likely the main barrier for bacteria and protozoa).

Try and understand what changes can been seen in the source water or system and have a UV reactor that is sized appropriately.

The QA rules cover this well with flow restrictions and appropriate sizing required such that the UV reactor is working within its design conditions under all operating scenarios.

Ultraviolet disinfection fouling

Reactors can quickly foul with foulants in the raw water. Things that may be of little concern for all other processes may suddenly form a sediment or foul the clean quartz sleeve inside the UV reactor, meaning that the treatment is significantly reduced. This is one of the reasons why iron and manganese are required to be tested for both S1 and S2 supplies in the QA Rules.

Although only iron and manganese are stated in the QA Rules, you can test for both dissolved and total iron and manganese. Consider testing for dissolved iron and manganese in water supplies that are to be chlorinated and total for where there is some form of filtration.

Sodium hypochlorite dosing setup.

UV reactors can be installed with wipers to reduce the build-up of fouling inside a reactor, and these should be considered on a case by case basis.

UV lamps, which often contain amalgam, need to be disposed of safely. These lamps can release mercury into the environment when broken.

What else might be in the water?

Make sure to understand your water source and be aware of natural risks that may be in your water source.

Water safety plans are required under the Water Services Act, and this is one of the key outcomes from this requirement.

Examples include understanding the risk of nitrates or ammonia in the water source. Once again, not prescribed by the QA rules for small supplies, but required to make safe drinking water under the Water Services Act.

Is chlorine disinfection actually a good idea, and for all supplies?

We’ve likely all heard about the evidence of what chlorine does, and that it has been significant in the reduction of typhoid and other water borne pathogen deaths and that it has led to increasing our average lifespans.

Most of us can either remember or know of a story from our elders that the source water used to be pristine, and we’ve never had an issue drinking it without chlorine, so why should we add it.

The reality is that water sources are changing and that chlorine significantly reduces health risks, and a barrier for most pathogen issues that may occur in a reticulation system. This is why it is now regulated, with a requirement for chlorine with residual:

• Written into the Water Services Act 2021 requirement for a water safety plan (Section 31(1)(j)) ‘where a drinking water supply includes reticulation, require, and provide for the use of, residual disinfection in the supply unless an exemption is obtained under section 58’;

• Required for all medium and large supplies in the QA Rules (>100 people).

For supplies of less than 100 people, our understanding is that the Water Services Act requirements need to be met, meaning the requirement for chlorination of reticulated supplies.

It is also important to understand that there are significant benefits, but also some risks in dosing chlorine. Chlorine dosing requires additional complexity and control is required, and plant operator competency levels need to be higher.

Adding chlorine does come with risks of overdosing, or by the creation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) where chlorine reacts with organic material in the water to form trihalomethanes (THMs) or haloascetic aids (HAAs) and other compounds.

Top far left: The cartridge and UV set up at Panguru. Top far right: UV Sleeve showing fouling and how important wipers can be, Photo: Xylem . Bottom left: A cartridge filter setup with fouled filter shown.

These compounds all have maximum acceptable values (MAVs) in the Water Services (Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand) Regulations 2022 which are a requirement for any supplier to meet. While there is no requirement in the QA rules for testing of THMs for ‘level 2’ (population of 100 to 500) water supplies, this risk is something that these supplies need to understand and manage.

Although international consensus is that the benefits of reduction of pathogens from chlorination outweigh the long term risks of by-products, water supplies should consider both, and take all practical steps to achieve both objectives.

Where there is a risk identified of forming DBPs, this may require additional treatment processes, typically with the use of a coagulant to bind, then filter, organics. Once again, more complexity and control is needed, and the selection of your filtration process (physical barrier) will need to consider this.

For small supplies where natural organics levels are high, in particular combined in some cases with aversion to the chlorination of water, the combination of membrane filtration plus UV disinfection may provide an acceptable level of microbiological risk, and could help support an application to Taumata Arowai for chlorine free operation (along with a robust understanding and management of the overall system of course).

LOW CARBON CONCRETE

It’s now more important than ever to have resilient infrastructure assets to protect our communities against the elements.

Hynds can now contribute to both sides of the equation with it’s new low carbon range Hynds LC.

Consider the impacts for your next project Sustainable Resilient Low Carbon

The distribution network

Once the water has been made safe to drink, now it must be kept that way.

The QA rules' minimum requirements are fairly robust for distribution systems with sampling and backflow required. For small supplies where there is the addition of chlorine, you’ll need to consider what reactions may occur to the treated water. The most common of these would be precipitation of dissolved iron and manganese in the distribution network causing dirty water complaints. DBPs are discussed above too.

The other thing to note is that where the levels of free chlorine are low, long-term corrosion of standard water fittings is not likely an ongoing issue, but often when there is a step change in the water chemistry from the addition of chlorine, some pieces of equipment on their last legs (e.g. hot water cylinders) may fail.

Don’t know where to start?

Begin by getting samples of the raw water analysed for parameters across the expected water quality range that the source may encounter. While there is no documented standard for sampling, accredited laboratories do this testing a lot and have suites of sampling for drinking water.

Otherwise, reach out to someone who may have some more knowledge, whether that is a colleague, a neighbouring supplier, an equipment supplier or another specialist. Keep asking until you have the knowledge you need.

When every drop counts

For over 90 years ADR has been there for New Zealand water authorities and Councils with our fieldsmart technology.

From metering to control systems to pump controllers, we offer insight and expertise in the technology that helps you manage water and waste water to a high standard, with resources that are always limited. www.adriley.co.nz

Legal update

committee

By Paul Majurey, director, and Amelia Scharting, solicitor, Atkins Holm Majurey.

and included concerns regarding the destruction of high value natural areas and the habitat of threatened species, the difficulties of restoring the site to its pre-mining condition, possible effects of climate change, concerns regarding highly visible landscapes and outstanding natural landscapes, and the effect on waterways and aquatic habitats.

A key issue in dispute was the adequacy of the Applicant’s rehabilitation plan for the area, which detailed several steps to offset the potential environmental disruption resulting from the Application. Ordinarily the positive effects of these measures might be considered under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) while evaluating the Application.

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated v West Coast Regional Council and Buller District Council [2023] NZEnvC 68

This decision was a successful appeal by The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated (Forest & Bird) against a council level decision to grant Stevenson Mining Limited (Applicant) a new consent for a proposed open cast coal mine in Te Kuha, located at the southern end of the Ngakawau Ecological District (Application) (near Westport). The case raised several indigenous biodiversity and freshwater considerations for the Court, due to the location and quality of the Application area.

The Application consisted of two mine pits, placement areas for overburden, engineered landforms, stockpile areas, diversion drains, and in-pit slumps. The proposed timeframe was 16 years of coal production, followed by a further 10 years of aftercare and other post-mining activities at the site.

The mine site fell within a water conservation reserve predominantly covered in indigenous flora and fauna. This area is somewhat naturally shielded from the impacts of surrounding land uses.

Roughly 12 hectares of the proposed 884-hectare mining land is within Department of Conservation administered land, with the remainder administered by the Buller District Council, operating as a public reserve.

Experts described the site as being in a close to ‘pristine condition’, being very near to its original state prior to the introduction of foreign species.

Additionally, Te Kuha supports the neighbouring species-rich ecosystem of Heaphy Valley and is home to a variety of species of concern.

Opposition to the proposal hinged on these features of the area

Additionally, other factors of the Application satisfied provisions in the Buller District Plan focusing on providing for the social and economic well-being of the community. These factors may have been in favour of granting the consent.

However, none of these benefits overcame the barriers to consent in the higher planning instruments. The Court noted that the specific wording of these instruments prevented them from taking the compensatory measures, predator control plan, and vegetation transfer into account as positive effects. This included policies in Chapter 7 of the West Coast Regional Policy Statement (RPS), and the highly prescriptive approach taken by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) on biodiversity.

Of particular interest to the water sector, the Application also failed to satisfy several wetlands policies. The immediate and direct loss of wetlands anticipated because of the Application activity contravened Policy 6 of the NPS-FM.

The Application also contravened Policy 6.3.6 of the Regional Land and Water Plan, and failed to meet any exemptions which would allow the application of the effects management hierarchy.

The adverse effects from these breaches far outweighed the potential benefits from the proposed activity and proved insurmountable for the Application.

This decision illustrates the weight courts are willing to place on higher planning instruments, including national policy statements. It also shows the NPS-FM in action as it interacts with regional policies and plans.

The stringent wording and directive policies under the NPSFM here served to protect valuable wetlands from potentially inappropriate development.

Freshwater farm plans

As part of the 2020 Essential Freshwater Package, the Government introduced the idea of freshwater farm plans (FFP). FFPs are a

Left: Paul Majurey and Amelia Scharting.

A note on recent case law relevant to the wetland protections provisions of the NPS-FM, an overview of the Freshwater Farm Plan Regulations, and an update on the select

reports on water reform legislation, where the tail end of extreme weather event impacts can still be seen.

regulated farm planning process, intended to be used by farmers and growers as a practical way for identifying, reducing, and managing the freshwater impacts of farming. FFPs are legislated under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), and the Resource Management (Freshwater Farm Plans) Regulations 2023 (the Regulations).

The Regulations were enacted on 6 June 2023, and detail the requirements for FFPs, and the obligations on those whose duty it is to prepare, certify, and enact them.

FFPs will be rolled out across the regions in a staggered manner, which has been determined by existing regional farm planning infrastructure, alignment to the NPS-FM freshwater planning process, and investment needs for capability and capacity in each region.

The regulations will first take effect in parts of the Waikato and Southland regions from 1 August 2023, giving farm operators 18 months from this date to prepare their FFP for certification. By the end of 2025 the regulations will be in effect across all regions. Farmers and growers will only be required to have an FFP if they have:

• 20ha or more in arable or pastoral use; or

• 5ha or more in horticultural use; or

• 20ha or more in combined use.

This new planning process will prioritise the health of the whenua (land) and the wai (water) within farm decision making. An on-farm freshwater risk assessment will be required, which should identify any actions needed to mitigate or manage any risks. These actions will be tailored to each farm situation. The FFPs must be certified and audited, with the results to be reported to regional councils.

Though FFPs are a new introduction into the farm planning landscape, it is expected that many farmers will already have a farm environment plan, or will be part of an industry programme, and hence the FFP will be able to build on that work.

As part of the broader freshwater management framework, FFPs will work in conjunction with existing higher order documents such as the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater, and the Stock Exclusion Regulations.

Water Infrastructure and Services Reform

Water Reform continues to progress, with June seeing the release of Select Committee reports on two bills, along with the introduction of a final bill to round out the suite of reform legislation.

Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill

The Finance and Expenditure Committee reported back on the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill (WSEECPB) on 7 June. The Committee recommended by a majority that the bill should be passed, with all amendments recommended by a majority.

The Committee’s amendments largely focused on dispute resolution, with the major recommendation addressing the right to appeal, such that appeals should be allowed from water entities and consumers. Further recommendations on the dispute resolution system

included changing the appeal application period, limiting compensation thresholds, allowing for representation by consumer advocacy groups, and adjusting the scope and funding of the consumer dispute resolution service.

The Committee also considered whether to make specific provisions for the Waikato River within the bill. Waikato and Waipā River iwi suggested the inclusion of Te Ture Whaimana, an important planning document relating to the Waikato River.

Though it acknowledged the importance of Te Ture Whaimana with respect to Crown-Māori relations, the Committee did not consider it was appropriate to make specific reference to the document within the WSEECPB.

Water Services Legislation Bill

Closely following the WSEECPB report, the Finance and Expenditure Committee then reported back on the Water Services Legislation Bill (WSLB) on 8 June. The committee recommended by majority that the WSLB should also be passed, though in this case all amendments to the bill were recommended unanimously.

The committee recommended a greater number of changes to this bill than the WSEECPB and included amendments on stormwater in response to recent weather events throughout the country.

Having seen how the extreme rain and flooding had ‘highlighted the importance of adequate maintenance of watercourses that are part of the stormwater network”, the committee suggested that water services entities should be responsible for managing stormwater networks, even through private land. This would ensure a better balance between the responsibilities of private landowners, and of the new entities, and would reduce flood risks by improved maintenance.

Alongside stormwater considerations, the committee reviewed offence provisions, the engagement and powers of the incoming water services entities, and Treaty of Waitangi settlement obligations. Changes were recommended to address concerns over freedom of expression, to allow the entities to more effectively and efficiently function and interact with the public, and to align the bill with proposed Resource Management Act replacement legislation.

Access to drinking water supply was also reviewed by the committee, with recommendations focusing on the equitable access of communities to water services.

Water Services Entities Amendment Bill

The final bill in the suite of water reform legislation was introduced on 16 June.

The Water Services Entities Amendment Bill (WSEAB) will make amendments to the Water Services Entities Act 2022, to reflect updates to the reform programme announced by the Government in April. These largely focus on increasing the number of water services entities from four to 10.

Next steps

The reports for the WSEECPB and WSLB will now be considered by the House, where the bills must undergo their second reading before progressing further. As we went to print, the WSEAB was being considered by the Governance and Administration Committee.

New data management platform for Otago

The Otago Regional Council has recently switched to a new environmental data portal, making it much easier to access more than 250 water monitoring sites around the region, improving access to critical information for customer and compliance staff.

Otago is large, with a diverse landscape and many water resources including alpine lakes, rivers, groundwater and wetlands. Approximately 23 percent of the country’s lake surface area, occurs here.

The Clutha River drains much of the region and is the largest river in terms of the quantity of water carried each year. The Clutha and its principal tributary, the Kawarau River, pass through spectacular gorges, two of which are dammed for hydro-electricity generation.

With such a large and varied landscape, Otago has an equally diverse hydrology with high rainfall in the Southern Alps to low rainfall in the semi-arid Central Otago valleys. This coupled with high seasonal evaporation rates can affect the supply and quality of Otago’s water bodies.

Despite the generally large water volumes present in the region, some parts of Otago are among the driest areas in New Zealand.

The Otago Regional Council (ORC) oversees the sustainable management of the region’s freshwater resources. It monitors environmental data and regulates the consumption, damming, and diversion of water, as well as water discharge that may result in a contaminant entering another source of water.

Together with Aquatic Informatics, ORC has created a new environmental data portal to replace the existing flood and low flow

warning sites used by the region's farmers, students, scientists, academics, and other residents. The new portal now also includes water quality.

Improving the customer experience

Simon Wilson, manager regulatory data and systems for ORC, says, “the new system will give people access to a user-friendly map which includes improved context of what is happening across the region, plus the ability to view and download historical data.”

The portal will collate data from more than 250 water monitoring sites around Otago and replaces the existing flood and low flow warning sites currently available on the council’s website, as well as provide greater access to a broader range of information beyond the standard river flow and rainfall sites, that also includes a variety of water quality parameters such a E-Coli

In some cases that means people will be able to easily access up to 80 years of data.

“We know the current website is well used, particularly during flood events. The new portal will provide a much better at-a-glance picture of what’s happening throughout Otago,” says Simon.

“ORC’s Environmental Monitoring Team collects a huge amount of data from across the

region which is used to track the health of the environment.

“One of our goals in setting up the portal was to make that information much more accessible to the public. We’ve started by publishing some key water quality measures and will be adding more data over time,” he says.

Modernising regulatory compliance

The council monitors compliance with approximately 1600 consents for the use of water, and a further 500 or so discharge consents.

Customers vary and include farmers, industry, forestry, district water providers, treatment plants and others. Some of these customers may have multiple consents and each consent is individualised to the area, usage constraints, seasonable variabilities, contaminant levels, time periods etc.

Managing all these consents as efficiently as possible is vital to ensuring customers are within compliance and that Otago’s water consumption and quality is well managed.

ORC chose Aquarius, a software platform created by Aquatic Informatics that is used by water monitoring agencies around the world to acquire, process, model and publish water information in real time.

ORC is in the process of creating dashboards

By Nicole Nally, Aquatic Informatics regional manager for Oceania & Asia.

for each consent and has built 1000 so far. The dashboards provide a single point for regulatory staff to view all the consent variables in one place with powerful charts and contextual visualisation.

“A lot of resource consent conditions require interaction with monitoring data or interpretation – for example, some consent holders can only take water when a river is above a minimum flow, others have seasonal conditions or conditions relating to rainfall.

“Customers can hold different consents for the same activity with council staff required to add different sets of limits together.

“By using the dashboard, staff can interpret all the limits and conditions for a customer once and build a fixed view, so that the next person to access the consent, can see the exact same things. A single consent may have up to 20 different variables that need to be considered. Using the dashboards means our staff don’t have to constantly reinterpret consents, or check what data needs to be pulled together to ensure a consent holder is compliant.

“This consistency and standardisation is extremely valuable and a real time saver.”

Left: Glenorchy Wetlands. Above: Braided River.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: OTAGO REGIONAL COUNCIL.

New UBC water treatment zaps ‘forever chemicals’ for good

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new water treatment that removes ‘forever chemicals’ from drinking water safely, efficiently – and for good.

“Think Brita filter, but a thousand times better,” says UBC chemical and biological engineering professor Dr Madjid Mohseni, who developed the technology.

Forever chemicals, formally known as PFASs (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a large group of substances that make certain products non-stick or stain-resistant. There are more than 4700 PFASs in use, mostly in raingear, non-stick cookware, stain repellents, and firefighting foam.

Research links these chemicals to a wide range of health problems including hormonal disruption, cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and cancer.

To remove PFASs from drinking water, Madjid and his team devised a unique adsorbing material that is capable of trapping and holding all the PFASs present in the water supply.

The PFASs are then destroyed using special electrochemical and photochemical techniques, also developed at the Mohseni lab and described in part in a paper published recently in Chemosphere (read it here: https://rb.gy/i3gm7).

While there are treatments currently on the market, like activated carbon and ion-exchange systems which are widely used in homes and industry, they do not effectively capture all the different PFASs, or they require longer treatment time, Madjid explains.

“Our adsorbing media captures up to 99 percent of PFASs particles and can also be regenerated and potentially reused. This means that when we scrub off the PFASs from these materials, we do not end up with more highly toxic solid waste that will be another major environmental challenge.”

He explained that while PFASs are no longer manufactured in Canada, where the research was undertaken, they are still incorporated in many consumer products and can then leach into the environment.

For example, when we apply stain-

resistant or repellent sprays/materials, wash PFASs-treated raingear, or use certain foams to put down fires, the chemicals end up in our waterways. Or when we use PFASs-containing cosmetics and sunscreens, the chemicals could find their way into the body.

For most people, exposure is through food and consumer products, but they can also be exposed from drinking water – particularly if they live in areas with contaminated water sources.

Madjid, whose research group also focuses on developing water solutions for rural, remote and Indigenous communities, noted: “Our adsorbing media are particularly beneficial for

people living in smaller communities who lack resources to implement the most advanced and expensive solutions that could capture PFASs. These can also be used in the form of decentralised and in-home water treatments.”

The UBC team has begun piloting the new technology at a number of locations in British Columbia.

“The results we obtain from these realworld field studies will allow us to further optimise the technology and have it ready as products that municipalities, industry and individuals can use to eliminate PFASs in their water.”

Article provided by the University of British Columbia.

Above: Professor Madjid Mohseni and postdoctoral fellow Dr Ehsan Banayan Esfahani looking at a pilot water treatment system that will be deployed in British Columbia in April. Photo: Lou Bosshart,UBC. Left: Fatemeh Asadi Zeidabadi, a PhD student in the UBC department of chemical and biological engineering and a student in Dr. Madjid Mohseni's group. Photo: Mohseni lab.

Cost

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• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•  

Navigating the water scarcity challenge in the desert

The Libyan desert is a place of breath-taking beauty. Yet, for the people of Wadi Ataba, it has also been a place of struggle and hardship.

For years, they have battled against the elements in search of water. The lack of safe and reliable water has taken a toll on their health and well-being, making every day a struggle.

Against this backdrop of struggle and hardship, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stepped in, recognising the difficult humanitarian situation in Wadi Ataba. We undertook a multifaceted intervention aimed at rehabilitating the Enjaran water network.

The project involved the construction of a new underground water tank, rehabilitation of an existing tank in the southern pumping station, and installation of equipment to enhance the efficiency and capacity of the water

supply to around 3000 civilians dwelling in the area.

Our intervention represents a beacon of hope in the area. For the first time in years, the people of Wadi Ataba have access to safe, reliable water around the clock. This precious resource will transform their lives in countless ways, bringing an end to their struggle of searching for water for so long.

The availability of clean water will have a positive effect on the health situation of the local population, reducing the incidence of water-borne diseases and other health issues that have affected the community for far too long.

As the inauguration of the Enjaran water network project ended, the

atmosphere was charged with happiness and gratitude. An elderly man in the area stepped forward to address the ICRC staff, his voice quivering with happiness and said: “We have been struggling for so long to have access to safe water, but the situation is way better now.”

This project has represented a vital step forward in meeting the humanitarian needs of the people of Wadi Ataba. By providing access to safe water around the clock, we have demonstrated our commitment to improving the living conditions of the local population and meeting their critical humanitarian needs.

Article provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s work guides and supports the sustainable development of the Bay of Plenty.

Our laboratory and sampling services team is registered with Taumata Arowai and can provide IANZ accredited testing and sampling for a number of different chemical, microbiological and drinking water parameters.

For further information on our laboratory testing services go to www.boprc.govt.nz

Flygt Adaptive Mixers

Treatment processes vary throughout the day, therefore the mixing requirements also change. Thanks to the integrated electronics and remote control of Flygt’s Adaptive Mixer the mixing requirements can be continuously adapted to the process requirements. Flygt adaptive allows you to use only the amount of energy you require for the desired output.

Key benefits include:

• Process flexibility with less wasted energy

• Reduced mixer inventory due to variable thrust

• Greater reliability

• IE4 motor efficiency

Sanitaire TurboMax Blowers

High-speed turboblowers use a direct-coupled impeller coupled to a permanent magnet synchronous motor, driven by a frequency converter and control system. The blower utilises the latest in air-foil bearing technology to reduce energy consumption, maintenance, noise and vibration.

• 1000’s of units installed globally, including Australia and New Zealand

• Air flows from 300 m3/h to 40,000 m3/h

• Low maintenance and noise

• Customisation options available

• Single and dual core models available