Minutes of Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting

Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting Minutes 10 November 2023

MINUTES OF
Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting
HELD AT THE Tekapo Hall, Aorangi Drive, Tekapo
ON Friday, 10 November 2023 AT 10.06am

PRESENT: Chairperson Matthew Bayliss, Mr Richard Subtil, Member Michael McMillan (online), Member Rynee de Garnham, Cr Scott Aronsen, Cr Brent Cowles, Cr Nick Ward

IN ATTENDANCE: Murray Griffin, zone facilitator, Tim Davie, director of science at Ecan, Peter Burt, zone lead for Upper Waitaki, Douglas ? from Alpine Salmon, Rick Ramsay from Mount Cook Salmon, Rebecca McIntyre, local farmer, John Benn, Department of Conservation, Jess Hitchen Mills, Jaymie Currie, Shirley Hayward, Heather McCarron (all Ecan staff), Cr Lisa Small, Waimate District, Arlene Goss, governance support.

1 Opening

The meeting opened with a karakia.

2 Apologies

Apologies were received from members Adriana Theobald and Marcelo Carena.

3 Declarations Of Interest

Member Marcelo Carena added by email before the meeting that he is a member of the biosecurity advisory group.

Member Rynee de Garnham said she would email her interests to the facilitator.

4 Minutes

4.1 Minutes of Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting - 18 August 2023

Committee Resolution UPP/2023/107

Moved: Cr Nick Ward

Seconded: Cr Scott Aronsen

1. That the Minutes of the Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting held on Friday 18 August 2023 be received and confirmed as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Carried

5 Reports

5.1 Ahuriri Catchment Farmers' Meeting - Review and Next Steps

This agenda item provided the committee with an opportunity to discuss the Ahuriri catchment Farmer’s meeting, hosted by the committee, on Thursday 26 October in Omarama.

Facilitator Murray Griffin asked for a discussion on this meeting and next steps. The meeting had about 30 farming representatives in the room and agreed to have another meeting in a few months.

Richard Subtil said the AGM for Ahuriri Collective Catchment Group meeting was held a few days ago and a new chairperson elected. They now had a representative on the group from most of the catchments. The group has a facilitator and has applied for funding. They have a big project in mind, a Willowburn Enhancement Project. Will find out about funding in December. Also planning a big goose cull.

An issue was that the Benmore Irrigation Company has no TLI limits in their resource consent. They don’t have to worry about TLI until 2034. If they and Willowburn don’t have to do anything to address the issues, others are carrying the can.

Discussion took place on these matters. Individual property owners under Benmore Irrigation will have a land use consent. Questions were asked about the structure of the consents related to these properties.

The chairman said at the same time as pursuing improved controls, he also wanted to encourage understanding and learning. Members said the challenge was to get the ball moving. The chairman agreed.

A member of the public requested education on how TLI was measured. She questioned whether other factors were a better measure of water quality. She felt some of the information provided at the farmer’s meeting was misleading. Ecan scientist Shirley Hayward said nitrogen levels were driving the TLI. She offered to come to a catchment meeting for further discussion.

The chairman asked how can the committee support the catchment group to get a better understanding of the science? A workshop was suggested. Richard Subtil said the best time to act was immediately. He said the science wasn’t perfect and taking the time to change the yardstick would just see the lake getting worse while people argued.

The chairman suggested a future meeting or one-on-one. Shirley Howard said she was happy to do a one-on-one.

Ecan zone delivery lead Peter Burt introduced his plan which is available as an attachment to the minutes. It outlines the low hanging fruit in the Ahuriri area. His plan was to fold the science into this and bring it to the next farmers meeting in March.

Rick Ramsay from Mount Cook Salmon raised the issue of the increase in clarity in Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo affecting the TLI. He did not believe this was being accounted for. Shirley Hayward said scientists were currently reviewing information on this matter, that was attached to resource consent applications from Genesis and Meridian.

Tim Davie said water clarity on its own was not responsible for increasing TLI. It was water clarity combined with nutrients that caused the issues.

The chairman asked Ecan staff to follow up with Katie Milne who had worked with a catchment group elsewhere with success. He also asked for communication with the farmers to take place a couple of times between now and their next meeting in March. Murray Griffin suggested sending out a summary of the meeting to those who attended, with a thanks for attending.

Cr Aronsen said he would be writing some stories for publication in the Twizel Update on related matters.

5.2 Ecan Zone Delivery Update

This update by Peter Burt (Zone Delivery Lead, ECan) and Jess Hishon-Knowles (Senior Land Management & Biodiversity Advisor, ECan) provided the Upper Waitaki Water Zone Committee with an update on the current priorities of the ECan Zone Delivery team in the Mackenzie Basin/Te Manahuna.

Peter Burt tabled a work plan and spoke about it. He would like to map out how to make a difference in the Ahuriri catchment, in conjunction with the farmers. Discussion took place on the compliance environment and individual points in the plan. The chairman said this plan was great news and thanked Peter Burt for his work.

5.3 Love Our Lakes Campaign Update

This agenda item provided the Zone Committee with the opportunity to confirm the approach to the 2023/24 Love Our Lakes campaign. It came from Heather McCarron, Communications and Engagement Advisor.

Heather McCarron spoke to her report. She asked the committee if they wanted to spend money on a professional person to set up a Facebook page and promote engagement. Cr Aronsen said he has experience in this area and was happy to set up and moderate a Facebook page for nothing.

The chairman said spending a bit of money up front would ensure more followers at the start. It could be a one-off cost. Was there someone local who could do this? Heather McCarron agreed to look for a local provider. Ideas on how to increase outreach on Facebook were shared.

The committee agreed that $1200 a month for four months for the Facebook page was too expensive. They asked staff to find someone in the community who could do it for less money. No amount was specified.

Regarding the Love our Lakes giveaways, the idea was to give the harbourmasters something to give to boaties. The branded phone bags were good for this.

Discussion took place on the events that members could attend to hand out the giveaways. They agreed to attend the Salmon and Wine Festival and Swim Ruataniwha. But not the rowing champs.

Proposed spend on the giveaways was agreed as listed in the report. The committee agreed they were happy for the comms and engagement budget to be spent on the things outlined in the report and above.

5.4 CWMS Action Plan and Budget Update

This report was to update the committee on current proposals for the CWMS Action Plan Budget 2023/24. It also provided two reports from the Ōhau Conservation Trust on projects supported by the committee in 2021/22 (attached to the agenda).

Murray Griffin went through the matters in his report. This included accountability reports from two projects funded previously by the committee.

Member Rynee de Garnham suggested with future applications the committee should check what would be happening to trees that were removed. She noted that trees were left in heaps to rot down, when she had assumed they would be removed and mulched.

The chairman suggested emailing Viv at the Ohau Conservation Trust to come back to the committee with an explanation of why they chose that method. How do we ensure that the stockpiling of the debris doesn’t result in a new infestation of willows? An ecan staff member who was present said she was a trustee and would talk to Viv about this. John Benn from DOC assumed this was because it was the type of willow that did not regenerate.

Murray Griffin asked the committee to consider how it wanted to fund projects in future.

Discussion took place on the two possible projects being visited after today’s meeting. The planting by the Church of the Good Shepherd was on their own land. The planting by Mr Geaney was partly on council road reserve and partly on Genesis controlled lakefront. The committee agreed they were in support of both projects but would ask Mr Geaney to get permission from both MDC and Genesis.

Murray Griffin asked to do a draft amendment to the action plan and bring them back to the committee for approval.

Regarding the application for money to address Old Man’s Beard, the chairman was concerned that the committee’s money would disappear into this large zone very quickly, especially if the money was directed into the area of biosecurity.

Tim Davie said he would express concern to Ecan management that money was being spent by the committee on biosecurity and whether Ecan biosecurity money could be an alternative funding source.

Member Michael McMillan left the meeting at 12.15pm.

5.5 Zone Facilitator's Update

Murray Griffin brought attention to the documents attached to his report. He encouraged the members to register for the summit mentioned.

The chairman asked if the contact recreation water quality document could be shortened to be zone specific. Tim Davie summarised this report for the committee. Not a lot had changed and Ecan would be monitoring recreation water quality over summer.

5.6 General Business

· Meeting dates for 2024 were noted.

· Richard Subtil suggested an end of year celebration. Murray Griffin suggested doing something at the first meeting of the new year as an option.

· The first formal meeting of the committee would be held on the 16th of February. Rick Ramsay offered the use of the Mount Cook Salmon office as a location, with a barbeque for lunch.

· Richard Subtil asked if there was budget for goose control. The Ahuriri catchment group wanted to spend some existing funding on a geese control project. The chairman asked for the group to put in a funding application with an effective plan, including the disposal of the dead birds.

· Rick Ramsay said the TLI was exceeded in the Wairepo Arm this year. He was surprised the committee were not notified of this. He called for work to happen on understanding how the water flow worked in this area. A small catchment group tried to get going and needed to be re-established to address the issue. The chairman asked Murray Griffin to request a report on this to the zone committee for the February meeting.

· John Benn from DOC said the Waitaki Lake shores authority met recently. Funding for lake weed eradication from LINZ had ended. He said this work needed funding by someone. This needed to be followed up. The chairman said he would seek more information on this.

The Meeting closed at 12.45pm with a karakia, and was followed by lunch.

The minutes of this meeting were confirmed at the Upper Waitaki Zone Water Management Committee Meeting held on .

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CHAIRPERSON