Swimmable rivers to cost $217m a year
The cost of making 90 per cent of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes ‘‘swimmable’’ by 2040 has been estimated at $217 million a year, most of which would be borne by those in rural areas and Auckland.
The costs were calculated by the Ministry for the Environment after the nation’s 16 regional councils submitted their draft targets for meeting the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management goal of having 90 per cent of rivers and lakes swimmable by 2040.
A swimmable lake or river has a low level of E. coli, which is used as an indicator of the risk to human health.
At present 71.2 per cent of the nation’s rivers and lakes are classed as swimmable.
Regional councils had to make their draft regional targets public by the end of this month.
Final targets must be made public by December.
The councils provided information on planned upgrades of discharge points such as wastewater outfalls, and scientists provided information on the effect of mitigation measures that could be carried out in rural areas, such as excluding stock from waterways, riparian planting and management of dairy effluent. The cost of excluding stock was based on using twowire electric fences on both sides of waterways to exclude cows (but not sheep).
Riparian buffers were 3 metres wide and a row of native plants.
A recently released ministry report stated that modelling showed the swimmability of rivers and lakes would improve by 6.9 per cent to 78.1 per cent if all the councils’ works currently planned or under way were in place now.
The cost of achieving this was put at $217.23m a year.
Of that, $135.08m would be borne by the rural sector and $82.15m by the urban sector.
The regions bearing the largest costs were Auckland (40 per cent), Canterbury (15 per cent) and Waikato (9 per cent). ‘‘Auckland’s costs represent the large proportion of New Zealand’s population that live there, and their significant commitment to improve wastewater infrastructure. For Canterbury and Waikato, the scale and intensity of agriculture leads to their significant contribution to total cost.
‘‘Both of these regions also possess substantial areas of land allocated to lifestyle farming,’’ the report stated.
The allocation of cost across the various sectors nationally is: sheep and beef (59 per cent), lifestyle farms (19 per cent), dairy (16 per cent), dairy grazing (3 per cent) and deer (3 per cent).
‘‘The cost for sheep and beef farming is driven by the low level of stream fencing currently on this land, the expense of stream fencing on steep land where much of this land use is located, the need to invest in water reticulation following stream fencing to provide livestock access to water, and the large area used for sheep and beef farming in New Zealand,’’ the report said. If sheep were to be fenced from waterways there would be significant extra cost, it said.
The ministry’s deputy secretary of water, Cheryl Barnes, said it was important to note that the report was ‘‘not a plan for how we will achieve the national target, rather it is information for councils to use when they talk to their communities about what their final targets should be’’.
‘‘The report tells us what we can expect based on information currently available about work currently planned or under way in each region.
‘‘The intent of the report is to provide a starting point, to help communities understand what’s planned and explore what more needs to be done to reach the national target,’’ she said.
Barnes said the 2040 target was challenging, ‘‘and we did not expect at this point in the process to have everything in place to achieve it’’. Hanging upside down in a Waihi cornfield with blood in his eyes, pilot Rod Vaughan did not have time to wonder what his aircraft had hit before crash landing.
Now his wounds are healing, he is certain it was a drone.
If he is correct, it will be the first time a drone has taken down an aircraft in New Zealand but there have been several reported nearmisses.
Recently a drone came within 5 metres of an incoming 777-200 plane approaching Auckland, putting 278 passengers at risk.
Vaughan, a former investigative journalist who was once punched by Sir Bob Jones, was out enjoying a flight in an Aeroprakt Foxbat with his son on Wednesday afternoon when disaster struck.
‘‘Without any warning a tornado of air was just racing inside the cockpit,’’ he said.
The force of the impact, and pressure of the wind, dislodged the two doors which dangled behind the aircraft still tethered to the airframe.
‘‘I immediately looked to get the plane on the ground.
‘‘We were about 1600 to 1700 feet at the time and we came down in about 30 seconds.’’
Vaughan aimed the stricken aircraft at a cleared corn paddock. ‘‘There was a hedge that I think I clipped on the way,’’ he said.
The bumpy paddock put too much pressure on the front wheel which buckled, causing the plane to flip 180 degrees.
Vaughan and his son were able to walk away from the crash but not without injury.
His son was able to brace himself during the crash so suffered only bruising from the seatbelt.
Vaughan’s head was cut in the crash.
‘‘We got ourselves out and called for help,’’ he said.
‘‘We could have been killed.’’ Vaughan said the fact the window imploded in the manner it did left him with three theories.
‘‘One would be a bird strike but we didn’t see any bird activity in the area,’’ he said. ‘‘The second would be a high velocity rifle shot but I think we can rule that out. Another option is a drone.’’
Vaughan said he hoped the Civil Aviation Authority thoroughly investigated the incident but he admitted the truth might never come out.
‘‘I don’t think someone is going to put their hand up and say: I am missing a drone and it was last seen flying near your aircraft.’’
Vaughan said spotting a drone while flying was nearly impossible and the prevalence of drones was putting amateur airmen at risk.
‘‘Kids can buy drones for $90 at the Warehouse,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s hard enough to spot a plane in the air which is why we rely on radio reports but drone operators are not using radios.’’
The CAA said it was investigating and would comment when more information came to hand.
President of the Airline Pilots Association Tim Robinson said he was alarmed at the number of near misses involving drones and he was also calling for greater regulation.
‘‘There’s been a growth in the sale of drones recently which is why there needs to be tighter regulation.’’
Robinson said it was time New Zealand fell in line with other countries.
‘‘Registration of drones over 250g is already in place in the United States and Australia.
‘‘It’s easy in the United States where they have an online registration.’’
Robinson thought fixing the problem would require a multi-faceted approach but saw the onus of understanding regulations as falling on the person flying the drone.
"The intent of the report is to provide a starting point, to help communities understand what's planned and explore what more needs to be done to reach the national target." Cheryl Barnes Ministry for the Environment