stephen July 23rd, 2009

2009 photo - water is normally maintained at 34 RSL

1998 photo - water is approx 2 metres above water table (56 RSL)

• Environmental Issues , Resource Consents , STEPS
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meolacreek May 5th, 2009

a torrent of stormwater (including pollutants and sewage from combined sewers) into Meola Creek

• Westfield wants to change the zoning of many residential 6a and 7b properties to business 8
• they plan an expansion of an extra 23000 sq meters beyond their shopping mall of 35800 sq meters + carpark of 26000 sq m
• the mall development will occur over an additional 49000 sq m (carpark plus existing residential properties)
• they are planning for a FIVE (5) fold increase in consumption of water; and emission of  waste water and a TEN (10) fold increase in storm water – both peak and average flows
• the existing northern carpark constructed in 2003 …appears to have inadequate stormwater disposal capacity as of now
• Watercare Services advised that the existing Edendale Branch sewer has adequate capacity to receive the additional waste water
• no additional stormwater would be permitted to discharge into the sewer
• excess stormwater from the site would be directed on to adjacent road reserves…to continue along the natural course downstream of the shopping centre [ie into Meola Creek at Lyon Ave as above]

1. Auckland City Council should not issue approvals for extremely large scale developments such as this, in an area where their own reports frequently point out the lack of capacity of the stormwater and waste water infrastructure
2. We challenge Watercare Services statements about adequate capacity – when we all know that waste water and stormwater overflow here many times a year
3. Most New Zealanders will find it hard to understand that NZ’s largest city accepts this situation where raw sewage frequently flows through public parks and school grounds, and heavy metal pollutants pour into Waitemata Harbour beside [heritage protected] Te Tokaroa/ Meola Reef.
4. It is even hard to understand how Westfield and the planners of Auckland City Council have worked for several years to develop a proposal which once again ignores the unacceptable reality of these overflows through the heart of the Mt Albert electorate.
5. ARC, Auckland City and Watercare services need to make it a priority to upgrade the Watercare Interceptor to stop these overflows

• Environmental Issues , Politics , Resource Consents , news
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Liz March 24th, 2009

Some info from Metrowater:

Metrowater manage the creek on behalf of Auckland City who own Meola and four other urban streams on the Auckland isthmus:

The Meola Creek catchment is predominantly under residential land use
with small area of light industry and commercial use, such as St Lukes
shopping centre.
Stormwater disposal via soakage to the underlying volcanic aquifer
occurs across much of the catchment.  This recharges the aquifer, from
which groundwater discharges into Meola stream to the south of the
groundwater divide and, by virtue of the outflow from Western Springs,
into Motions Creek north of the divide.  In the remainder of each
catchment stormwater is piped through the combined stormwater/wastewater
system from which wastewater overflows can occur during some events.

Meola Reef Reserve and land to the south of Meola Road between the two
creeks (Meola and Motions) was previously a landfill.  Although the
landfill has been closed since the 1970′s, leachate discharges have
continued, leading to a current programme of landfill remediation.

Meola Creek has value as a public amenity and an aquatic ecosystem.
Consequently, knowledge of the water quality and the level of
contamination contributed by stormwater and wastewater inputs is
important for the management of the stream.

Metrowater and Auckland City Council have commissioned many studies to
establish baseline water quality conditions in multiple Auckland
Streams.  The results of these studies can then be compared to future
monitoring results to identify the extent of any changes over time.

For extra info about Meola and water catchments in Auckland City:

The most comprehensive source was published in 2001: Auckland City Drainage System Resource Consents Assessment of Environmental Effects

http://www.metrowater.co.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aee_contents.pdf

There are 14 separate chapters published on the web – by Metrowater…  here is one
http://www.metrowater.co.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aee_chpt07.pdf
You can search by chapters and there is an index – they are all similarly
named. Chapter 7 is in fact the biological environment – and chapter 8 is the assessment of environmental impacts. There are also more references.

Aspects of drainage and issues and the new Roy Clements Treeway Boardwalk Project

www.nzsses.auckland.ac.nz/conference/2008/papers/Clarke.pdf

A general introduction to Meola Creek which includes some stormwater
info…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meola_Creek

For general information on stormwater and understanding stormwater and
stormwater systems and issue visit the ARC website/page:
http://www.arc.govt.nz/environment/water/stormwater/stormwater_home.cfm

Other references

• Environmental Issues , Press , Wildlife
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Liz January 27th, 2009

The Ministry of Environment is developing objective and policies for managing New Zealand’s freshwater resources.  See http://www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/central/nps/consultation/index.html

• Environmental Issues , Politics , news
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Liz November 12th, 2008

“One project sure to disappoint Aucklanders is an $86 million cut in
stormwater spending that will almost certainly result in waste overflows
continuing at St Heliers and other city beaches for years longer than
planned.”

link:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article…cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10542482

• Environmental Issues , Politics , news
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Liz October 24th, 2008

I have a concern about the safety of both children and wildlife at the sewer outfall behind Haverstock Rd, Mt Albert.

On Tuesday 21 October we saw a young boy (under 10) climbing on the outfall in Kerr-Taylor Reserve which is next to a house. This is the place where the sewer overflows from 96 Haverstock Rd emerge, and the stream here can be highly polluted.

When we reached it there were two young boys climbing down. They were looking at the dead pukeko lying there, and a second pukeko attending to the dead one. The young boy broke a bottle and starting climbing down further with some broken glass in his hand. We told him the water was very dirty, and we said how sad it was the bird was dead. He came back up.

We waited while the bird walked away. We noticed its tail feathers were all removed or cut off. We contacted SPCA – who said they are unable to do much.

We are concerned about this and think we need to see if there is more required to prevent children from going into the sewer outfall. We contacted Metrowater who removed the dead bird. We also asked them whether clearer signs are needed.

• Environmental Issues , Wildlife
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Liz September 22nd, 2008

On 16 September 2008, we were advised by Judith Bassett, ARC Councillor that ARC has thoroughly discussed STEPS concerns about Meola Creek. These concerns were first raised with ARC when Judith and ARC officers were invited to present to us on 20 Sept 2007. They have been followed by a recent letter from the Eden Albert Community Board, (see previous blog post), and also concern from STEPS that ARC provided a non-notifed resource consent allowing Housing NZ to move the creek bed above Haverstock Rd – in advance of the hearings for ACC resource consents.

Auckland Regional Councillors have also advised council officers that:

1. STEPS concern is not limited to sewage but to other contaminants as well.
2. They must determine where the stream should be and where the
   “overland flow path” is meant to be.
3. They must also consider concerns about Meola Reef, (where Meola Creek discharges to the Witemata Harbour)
4. The most practical thing requested was a process of regular monitoring to establish a baseline as you asked us to do. Relying on complaints is no good.
5. Once the baseline is established we can have a systematic monitoring process to try to find out what is really happening to the stream and whether Watercare can do more to mitigate
   the adverse effects.

Tags: ARC

• Environmental Issues , Politics
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meolacreek May 13th, 2008

Auckland City Council
Media release
9 May 2008

A programme of works is to be developed to help mitigate the impacts of sewer overflows into Meola Creek. The City Development Committee heard that a long-term solution under consideration by Watercare, the installation of a new interceptor main, is not likely to be operational for about five to 10 years. In the meantime, the committee has asked the council, Metrowater and Watercare to move ahead with initiatives to minimise the problem.

Works would be aimed at:

• protecting the health and safety of the community as far as possible, with fencing, signage and public warnings
• raising the footpath along Meola Creek between the two overflow sites
• roofing over the Lyon Avenue overflow
• improved screens at overflows to reduce the quantity of clearly visual material
• diversion of some stormwater to ground soakage where practical
• improving the creek habitat.

A report to the committee noted that 80 per cent of the overflows came from Watercare sewers, with most from sewers at Lyon Avenue and Haverstock Road.

About 40 per cent of the Meola catchment is served by combined sewers. Currently, Metrowater is conducting sewer separation works in the Motions catchment and this will take nearly all Metrowater’s sewer separation budget for the next three years. Committee chairperson Councillor Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said that all the agencies were acutely aware of the unpleasant side effects of sewage overflows. “The trunk system was installed about 100 years ago and our population has simply outgrown its capacity,” he said. “The issue is not just to accommodate the existing need but to future proof the system for new growth and that is a hugely expensive and time consuming process.”

For further information, please contact:
Councillor Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, chairperson, City Development Committee
ph 927 209 7562
Email: cr.lotu-iiga@aucklandcity.govt.nz

• Environmental Issues , Politics
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Nick March 20th, 2008

New Zealand has lost approximately 95% of its wetlands to agriculture and urban expansion. Unfortunately, it’s taken us a while to realize the importance of these systems in terms of the biological and economic services they provide, e.g., flood attentuation, water filtration and purification, etc. It sobering to think that nearly all of St. Lukes and Sandringham was once a large wetland – in fact, Sandringham used to be known as Cabbage Tree Swamp. STEPS would like to recreate some of the past in our own backyard. We’re proposing to construct a small wetland in an area that is periodically fed by clean spring water. Our plan is to remove the weeds and plant the area with wetland species such as flax, sedges and raupo. As well as dramatically enhancing the visual amenity of the Kerr-Taylor Reserve, a wetland would provide excellent habitat and food resources for watefowl and terrestrial birds such as tui and silvereye. The designated area already has an impressive stand of young kahikatea and cabbage tree, and seeing their submerged trunks gives us an idea of what an intact swamp forest should look like (see Photos). The project is very much in the formative stages. For a start, we need to gain permission from Mt Albert Grammar, since the proposed wetland is on school land. A feasibility study also needs to be carried out. If we get the green light, then we’ll need to get funding for things such as engineering works and plants. We envisage the project being a partnership between STEPS, Mt Albert Grammar and the local community. We’ll keep you posted on progress. If you have any thoughts, comments or opinions, feel free to post them on the blog.

• Environmental Issues
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