Ground is ‘dust’ on Plains
Rain on Boxing Day has done little to ease dry conditions on the Waimea Plains, where stage two water restrictions remain in force.
Appleby Fresh managing director Mark O’Connor said the ground was still ‘‘dust’’ under the surface of his market gardens on the plains.
‘‘It’s bloody hard going,’’ he said. ‘‘It [the rain] gave everything a bit of a freshen up, that’s about it.’’
Tasman Dry Weather Task Force convener Dennis Bush-King said 15.5mm of rain fell on the plains during downpours on Boxing Day. The area received another 0.5mm sprinkling on Wednesday evening.
The rain did help the Waimea River flow reach 5.5 cubic metres a second but it had dropped back to 3 cubic metres a second by yesterday.
‘‘Of particular concern is the continuing low levels in our groundwater resources, which without the recent rain would have seen a recommendation for stage three restrictions – the earliest in recent history,’’ BushKing said.
The hydrograph for this year showed conditions were worse than at the same time during the summer of 2000-01 when a drought caused much hardship and the river to run dry.
‘‘It’s very early in the season still,’’ Bush-King said. ‘‘Rain is predicted next week.’’
O’Connor said the uncertainty of the water supply made it difficult to plant, an operation that required a lot of planning in such dry conditions.
‘‘You have to be very cautious when you plant,’’ he said. ‘‘You have to be able to water.’’
Crops such as water-needy lettuces were not being planted while irrigation had stopped last week on a couple of blocks as the water allocation limit neared for that area of land.
‘‘We didn’t plant coming up to Christmas,’’ O’Connor said on Wednesday. ‘‘We’ll do a little bit of planting today [post rain].’’
As well as being a grower on the plains, O’Connor is a director of dam proponent Waimea Irrigators Ltd – a potential partner with Tasman District Council in the proposed $82.5m Waimea dam in the Lee Valley.
The dam is designed to augment flows in the Waimea River during dry spells and recharge the aquifers that supply urban and rural water for the plains and its surrounds.
‘‘We need this dam badly, everybody,’’ he said. ‘‘If you don’t have water on these plains and you can’t expand the urban and industrial use, communities don’t grow. Communities are built on employment.’’
O’Connor said he did not think about a no-dam scenario.
‘‘How can you think about losing your whole business?’’
Bush-King said the dry conditions were also affecting beef and sheep farmers with little supplementary feed available.
All internal tracks on Moturoa/ Rabbit Island remained closed as did the Kingsland and Tunnicliff forests because of the fire risk, he said.
The stage two restrictions involve a 35 per cent cut in consented takes. Stage one restrictions, a 20 per cent cut in consented takes, that came into effect on Christmas Day for other areas also remain.
Watering restrictions are still in place for urban water users in Richmond, Mapua-Ruby Bay, Brightwater, Wakefield, Hope along with their rural extensions Only hand-held hosing of gardens every second day is permitted.