Out on their own
The Westport street left out of floodwall plans
As flood-vulnerable communities on either side of the Buller River await a Government decision on a multimillion-dollar protection proposal, residents of a corner of Westport are feeling left out. Local Democracy Reporter Brendon McMahon investigates.
Two small seaside towns are waiting anxiously to see whether the Government will set a new precedent for climate protection by backing a $45 million case to make them more ‘‘flood-resilient’’.
The proposal includes options for climate-driven retreat, addresses community resilience and incorporates a proposed $26m ring embankment around the majority of the Westport residential area, and Carters Beach on the opposite side of the Buller River mouth.
But a hard option for the rural residential settlement along Snodgrass Rd, just north of the Orowaiti River and estuary, has been discounted following technical advice. Snodgrass Rd has about 35 homes – a mix of traditional baches, small lifestyle blocks and modern multimilliondollar homes built to optimise the waterfront views.
However, the area has been repeatedly hit by climatic events in the past four years. Ex-cyclone Fehi in February 2018 sent a deluge through when ocean-generated surges via the Orowaiti Estuary outlet swamped the settlement.
Last July, a ‘one-in-100-year’ flood surged down the Buller River from the opposite direction. A large amount of the flood diverted via the ‘Orowaiti overflow,’ swamping Snodgrass Rd. Some houses had nearly 2 metres of water through them.
In February, residents were evacuated again when a heavy rain event threatened Westport. The flood impact this time was much less severe than last July, but the event that drove it was one of those increasingly being felt on the West Coast, with sudden squally rainstorms sending down slips and damaging infrastructure.
Prior to that, background work was already under way to provide a more comprehensive solution for the wider Westport township and surrounds. That
followed a $10.2m flood scheme proposed by the West Coast Regional Council through its long-term plan last year.
In February the Government invited the regional council and the Buller District Council to put together a business case by the end of June for a much bigger, cofunded protection scheme.
Local Government Minister Nania Mahuta specified community resilience, in the widest sense, be incorporated, with options for climate changedriven retreat and future adaptation. This was alongside the proposed floodwall work estimated at $26m.
The Westport business case has been signalled by the Government as a test case for future climatedriven protection schemes around New Zealand. It is based on a 75:25 funding split between the Government and ratepayers.
In the meantime, the regional council has also committed about $2m for retrospective repairs to scouring of rockwalls that divert the Buller River upstream at
Organs Island, and to a stopbank close to the edge of town, by O’Conor Home.
Residents stuck in limbo ‘want out’
A few weeks ago, when draft options were released for the $26m scheme and work on the $45m business case drew to a close, word emerged that physical flood protection for Snodgrass Rd was not in the mix.
Learning of this through local media reports did not bode well for Ruth Vaega and husband Peter Graham, who have salvaged their home twice from flooding since 2018 and now just want to leave.
‘‘We’re kind of like a lot of people. We want out ... even though the house is safe, it’s the [locality] that is not safe, but a lot of people have invested a lot of money here – they can’t leave.’’
This was on top of the fact that Snodgrass Rd, along with Westport township, remains just as vulnerable to another big flood as faced in July last year.
‘‘Now, every time there is a high tide we get so stressed,’’ Vaega says.
‘‘We’re not alone ... It’s really not satisfactory, and why should we have to wait for the next flood to come? Given what the neighbourhood has already suffered, it’s natural to want to avoid the consequences again.
‘‘I think back to the flood with [ex-cyclone] Fehi – we were out of our house for a year and a half.’’
The surprise meeting in midJune for Snodgrass residents about the implications of the business case with West Coast Regional and Buller District Council representatives seemed token, and some were upset when local media were excluded at the outset, she says.
‘‘We were pretty shocked that the meeting was a closed meeting.’’
While one representative, regional councillor Laura CollMcLaughlin, held out ‘‘a bit of hope’’ for a solution, there was little to pin their hopes on, including eventual relocation or compensation.
‘‘Our situation is that this is our investment that we are banking on selling, so we can downsize,’’ Vaega says. ‘‘If they do not protect it in some way then we will not get a very good return.’’
Both she and near neighbour Sarah-Lee Smith say the lag in addressing the issues caused by flooding have been far-reaching both mentally and financially.
For example, the children of one young local family have now lived more than half their lives in temporary accommodation while awaiting stormrelated repairs to their home.
Smith is resolved to hold on to the dream of her small lifestyle property. ‘‘I’m not prepared to give it away without a fight.
‘‘The bottom line is I hope our council will come through, but I don’t have much faith. The lack of consultation is appalling.’’
While she is ready to fight, five years on from ex-cyclone Fehi the resolve of some residents in the area is at an all-time low.
‘‘It’s been very hard mentally, battling. Every time it rains, you can’t sleep.
‘‘It’s hard to bear knowing that some of Westport is going to get looked after, and we’re not. We all deserve to sleep at night and not have the stress and worry every time it rains.’’
‘‘It’s been very hard mentally, battling. Every time it rains, you can’t sleep.’’ Sarah-Lee Smith
Smith is waiting for her yellowstickered and gutted house to be repaired. After living in a portacom since the big flood, she has moved back into the house for winter after finding a way to make it safe to have electricity restored.
But it is small comfort when she does not know if there is a future on Snodgrass Rd.
‘‘It’s very nerve-racking. From what they have released, basically, they have left us residents to go under with the next flood.
‘‘They wishy-washily said at this meeting, ‘we’ve been told not to say but we will be making plans for Snodgrass’. But when?’’
Smith pays rates on a property not currently serviced by the normal utilities.
Approaches to both councils for some kind of rate relief did not go anywhere.
‘‘We definitely feel totally abandoned by the council. How did they decide which ratepayers were more important to save than others? It’s gutting, really.’’
The meeting for Snodgrass residents had accentuated that tension: ‘‘Everyone was a bit annoyed.
‘‘They have said they haven’t written Snodgrass off completely. . . It’s very airy-fairy.’’
Smith set up a private Facebook group to try to network information to support the neighbourhood.
They had assurance the temporary bund along the road on the edge of the estuary could remain, and with that there were firm offers of help from the wider business community to help bolster the bund along the edge of the Orowaiti.
‘‘We’re kind of hoping we’ll get donations of any rock and fill.’’
‘Lack of input’ from ratepayers
In June, Westport accountant and former Development West Coast chairman Frank Dooley appealed directly to the regional council to do something more tangible for Snodgrass residents.
Dooley lives on the edge of the Orowaiti Estuary opposite Snodgrass Rd and has watched every flood event. He went to the council to advocate as a trustee for several property owners including employees of Buller Electricity, which he chairs.
He raised the issue of equity for all Westport residents and the need for provisions to help those who might fall outside the parameters of the business case.
‘‘We cannot leave the Snodgrass residents out there on a whim. We have to look at all of those people who have been excluded from protection,’’ Dooley says.
‘‘It may not be building walls, but there are other options that we need to consider. We need to sit down with the so-called experts. They have ruled out the Orowaiti Cut for reasons I question – to me if you put in the Orowaiti Cut that will have a massive benefit for Snodgrass.’’
He also has concerns about the vulnerability of the Nine Mile farming area on the Orowaiti and Buller flood plain but outside the proposed scheme options.
The meeting between councils and Snodgrass residents came after residents heard about ‘‘their fate in the media’’, Dooley said.
It did not front the technical experts used to arrive at decisions affecting their neighbourhood – such as the recommendation not to improve culverts through the railway embankment at Steven
Rd, which locals say affected the flood surge down the Orowaiti River last July, or to push a new outlet straight out to sea.
‘‘The experts used for the business case weren’t there. We went along to a meeting that was fronted by the CEOs of the regional council and the [Buller District Council]. There was only one person at the meeting that had any idea, and that was Cr Laura Coll-McLaughlin.’’
Dooley says the work to prepare the business case was admirable in the timeframe given by the Government, but his initial take was that the total scheme was ‘‘a truncated proposal’’.
He is concerned the $10m adaptation aspect of the business case is not realistic when the capital value of all affected Snodgrass Rd properties was added up. ‘‘It concerns me that there is a total lack of input from the ratepayers in the community. I think what we’ve got to do is wait. We’ve got to see what central
Government’s appetite is to coinvest and then reconsider what is the best option.
‘‘If there is an appetite for coinvestment, I really believe we have to have a further round of consultation with our ratepayers.’’
Between a rock and a hard place
Buller District Council chief executive Sharon Mason acknowledged canvassing the issues at stake for Snodgrass Rd had been constrained by the tight timeframe to prepare the business case. A lot more work was needed to consult the community, depending on the Government’s response.
‘‘It’s challenging because what has gone forward is a theoretical concept. We acknowledge that this creates a level of uncertainty.’’
Building the business case had been ‘‘very complex’’ and until all the technical advice had come in, within the deadline, it was ‘‘really challenging to know what should be discussed’’. This included how the issues directly affecting Snodgrass might be addressed.
‘‘I absolutely understand their frustration,’’ Mason says.
‘‘We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place – bearing in mind that this is the beginning of a process. At the end of the day a proposal has gone forward to the Government.’’
The councils wanted to put the technical experts used for the business case before the Snodgrass residents, but it had been hard to co-ordinate at this stage, she says. The recent community meeting had only been intended to engage with them and ‘‘explain the process’’ the councils had to follow with the proposal.
The councils were ‘‘very clear’’ of their requirements under the Local Government Act to consult the community about the scheme and its implications.
Mason says the business case parameters set by the Government were very broad.
‘‘It was much more than hard defences . . . it’s very broadreaching.’’
There was also a very clear sense on all sides that the case was a pilot for a response by the Government for other communities facing the same issue. ‘‘Westport is of a size and scale to pilot a scheme for other communities. We’re on a learning curve here.’’
This included ‘‘a multi-tool approach’’ by the Buller council as a partner with the regional council to make the whole Westport community more resilient in the face of climate change, for example.
The councils expected to have an answer about September or October, ‘‘then we can get into having some real conversations’’.
That might include having to go back to the original $10.2m regional council long-term plan proposal if the Government did not come through with coinvestment for the business case.
Mason said the council was ‘‘very cognisant’’ of the impact on the whole of the community.
‘‘That’s why we offered to connect the residents into the community hub – that they had a point of contact to go to – and a number of residents have picked up on that.’’
Snodgrass ‘inherently vulnerable’
A report to the Westport Rating District Joint Committee a month ago outlined the extensive climate change scenario, option and riskassessment analysis behind the business case – and the implications for Snodgrass Rd residents. The analysis was used to recommend preferred structural and nature-based solutions to mitigate the risk of flooding in Westport.
Business case consultant John Hutchings says avoiding floods, retreating or relocating away from the flood risk and/or improving response systems to accommodate flood risks would also be considered, as part of the stipulated framework required by the Government.
The report says flood mitigation structures for Snodgrass Rd were fully explored but not favoured because:
■ The neighbourhood would still be ‘‘inherently vulnerable’’ under present climatic conditions and even more with future climate change.
■ Snodgrass was ‘‘not made worse off’’ by proposed structural flood protection for Westport.
■ Low-lying areas bordering the Orowaiti Estuary would be directly affected by increased sea levels, and consequent groundwater increases immediately inland.
■ The cost-benefit of investment at Snodgrass were ‘‘not as attractive’’ as the ringbank investments for Westport and Carters Beach.
■ Construction of protection banks at Snodgrass would ‘‘significantly increase’’ water levels up to 6 kilometres inland, impacting on other landowners.
■ Gaining resource consents for Snodgrass structural protection ‘‘may be difficult’’ due to embankments extending into the estuary, restricting public access, and affecting amenity value.
The other issue was that banks at Snodgrass would divert flood flow in the Orowaiti River to the true left side of the estuary – Westport – making it necessary to build taller stopbanks on the town side, ‘‘with consequent cost and amenity implications’’.