Mudfish holding up works

A planned $4 million expansion of Carterton’s wastewater plant may have to be pushed back a year after the discovery of native mudfish (inset above) in the area slated for development.

Carterton District Council staff are trying to find an alternative home for the brown mudfish that are living in drains and ditches on the site of the planned 200,000 square metre effluent storage facility.

Freshwater ecologist Amber McEwan said Neochanna apoda was an important native species. ‘‘Brown mudfish are found nowhere else in the world and have a more serious conservation status than the little spotted kiwi.’’

Building of the plant at Daleton Farm to store treated wastewater was due to start this month.

Infrastructure, planning and regulatory manager Dave Gittings said the council was investigating to see whether it could temporarily move the native fish to areas on nearby farms while a wetland area was prepared nearby.

‘‘If we can’t move the mudfish then we will miss the construction season so we will have to push that back to the following year.

‘‘It will all depend on habitat suitability and the OK from the experts,’’ he said.

Any relocation of the mudfish has to be signed off by Greater Wellington Regional Council and would be done using about 30 traps to capture the fish in the ditches.

The favoured relocation site is a recently created wetland south of the wastewater scheme, but only one of its three areas is holding water, after the other two ran dry.