ECan finally answers call to give dying fish water
Environment Canterbury’s boss has buckled to outrage and allowed farmers to divert water to save a drying-up creek’s last surviving fish.
While advocates have welcomed the news, they say it has come a week too late.
Thousands of freshwater fish, crayfish and eels have died in the drying Greenstreet Creek near Ashburton, despite numerous calls to Environment Canterbury (ECan) for help.
Farmers previously kept the creek flowing and the ecosystem inside it thriving using their irrigation water, but a change to the water consent for the creek in July meant they could face compliance action from ECan for doing so.
Using buckets and fishing nets, farmers, locals and Fish and Game staff did everything they could over the last four weeks to save the fish.
After numerous calls to ECan for help went unanswered, on Monday local farmer and Greenstreet Irrigation society chairperson Darryl Butterick and local fisherman Brett Colgan of Outdoor Access, which monitors rivers and lakes by livestream video, went public with their concerns.
Colgan said at 1.30pm yesterday, the regional council called saying they would allow irrigation water in the creek.
ECan boss Dr Stefanie Rixecker said in a statement she was “making the call” as chief executive, acknowledged the frustration and admitted ECan failed to keep the community well informed. However, she signalled that climate change meant there would be “hard calls” to come in future.
“This is not the only place in Canterbury that we will face a challenge like this, but we must work better with our communities and landowners, our rūnanga partners, and the wider public.”
Colgan said it was a “bittersweet” result. “This needed to happen a week ago,” he said. “End of the day, the inaction by Ecan has killed an entire ecosystem which is everything fishermen and farmers were fighting not to happen.”
He said ECan first said it would allow 150 cumecs – “this is the size of the Rakaia” – and then when questioned if they in fact meant 150 litres a second, they responded “oh, that must be it”, he said.
“That alone sums up the organisation and decision making, that they really have no idea,” Colgan said.
Colgan said it’s thanks to the power of the people that ECan finally made a U-turn.
“I think because of public pressure, you know, our posts started something. It's been picked up by people and the involvement from you guys. There’s no doubt about it … people power” Colgan said.
Butterick said himself and Colgan couldn’t have done it alone.
“100% down to you guys, the media and the hard work that everyone has done in trying to bring it to their attention. Because basically, we failed, they wouldn't listen to us at all. So you guys become involved, that'’ where we've got a result within a week.”
Colgan said it’ll be bittersweet to see a flowing creek again, as the number of fish still salvageable will be minimal. “If you were to put a number on it, you might say, I think half a per cent’s being too generous, and you might like to be kind and say 1%
Even then, Colgan said the signs of life will be species who had to dig deep for moisture.
“That’s only talking about the real tiniest of tiniest fish, even freshwater Crays that would have gone into the deep mud, where there was a bit of moisture. Or cockabullies, they would have held on as long as they could.”
Rixecker said the “bigger picture” was the impacts of El Niño and climate change.
“We’re seeing very dry riverbeds across Canterbury,” she said.
“Added to this, we’re the largest region in the country, with the greatest number of rivers and freshwater sources. This means challenges and the need to make trade-offs – tough calls that weren’t made by previous generations are here and now.”
The Ashburton River/Hakatere was an over-allocated catchment, she said. The consent reviews in the area were “precisely” because of this and related challenges.
“These changes are tough on communities,” she said.
She said diverting water solved this situation, but the future would require making “hard calls together”.