Kia ora, and welcome to On Stream, edition 4.
We hope you're staying warm and dry. It’s the season for moving stock, knitting socks, and showing off your firewood stacking skills. Did you know, Norwegians measure a person’s character by the way they stack wood?
- Upright and solid pile: Upright and solid
- Low pile: Cautious, could be shy
- Tall pile: Ambitious, but watch out for sagging and collapse
- Flamboyant pile, widely visible: Extroverted
- Unfinished pile, some logs lying on the ground: Unstable, lazy, prone to drunkenness
- Old and new wood piled together: be suspicious: might be stolen wood added
- Pedantic pile: Perfectionist with too much time on hands
In this edition, we also welcome ORC's new interim CEO, Dr Pim Borren. Read more about Pim below.
We also have an update from Enviroschools, a wrap of the Tiaki Maniototo Project’s recent hands-on workshop, a who's who in poo! and the results of our liquefaction study in Glenorchy. All this and we’ve got tips for keeping nasties out of our waterways over winter.
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Dr Pim Borren has been appointed Interim Chief Executive of the Otago Regional Council, following the resignation of Sarah Gardner, who left the organisation last month.
His appointment was confirmed by ORC councillors in an emergency Council meeting late in May.
Dr Borren’s experience to date covers more than 27 years in corporate, local government, tertiary education and private sector economics - which includes 15 years as a public sector chief executive.
Read more here.
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New findings on Glenorchy hazards released
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Recent natural hazard findings commissioned by the Otago Regional Council for the Glenorchy-Kinloch area at the head of Lake Wakatipu have been released.
While the area has a long history of large-scale environmental changes to the rivers and floodplains, the new geotechnical investigations with detailed modelling and analysis provide a much better understanding of the area’s natural hazard challenges. More information on our project, including the findings from the two reports, can be found here: https://www.orc.govt.nz/holw
We would like to thank everyone in the Glenorchy community for their participation and feedback during this process. To stay in touch,follow-up sessions for the Glenorchy community will be scheduled.Please subscribe to our monthly newsletter for dates, or feel free to contact ORC’s Natural Hazards team on 0800 474 082 or email us at headofthelake@orc.govt.nz. Details of upcoming events will also be updated on the webpage.
Image: Flooding at Glenorchy in February 2020 by Luke Hunter.
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Enviroschools - checking out critters in Omakau
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Omakau Primary students have been learning about the local environment and making a difference through planting projects, litter clean ups and getting the school compost and garden up and running. The students have been learning about the “critters” that live in their local awa, the Manuherekia River. They checked water clarity, velocity, PH and temperature and sampled the invertebrates in the water.
 We met buddy scientists Max and Zac. Max said, “We found lots of tiny critters in the river. We identified them on a chart. It showed us the river was healthy.”
Zac said he loved looking through the bathyscope. “It was a great device for checking out the riverbed.”
The students recorded the data so they can compare river health at different times of the year. We hope to check back in with them later in the year.
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Muddy Waters, real name McKinley Morganfield was American blues singer-songwriter and musician, responsible for the hit Hoochie Koochie Man. Muddy Waterways are something else, and not nearly as cool!
Good farming practices over the winter help our keep precious waterways clean. Winter poses particular risks to water quality. In heavy weather, exposed soil can become saturated and prone to muddying from stock. This can then be carried away during rain and storms into our waterways. As well as carrying soil that can clog waterways and cause issues for ecosystems including endangered fish, runoff can also contain phosphorus, nitrogen and E.coli, all if which affect downstream water quality, our health and the health of the water ecosystem.
Watch the video below for some good management tips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYQwcywu0w
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Green fingers - Tiaki Maniototo
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The Tiaki Maniototo Project recently hosted a free hands-on workshop for community members to come along and learn about the propagation of native seeds. Participants got stuck in, learning new techniques, asking questions, and connecting with like-minded people within the group.
Angelina Young from Puketeraki Nursery (Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki) facilitated the day. She directly connects with the Tiaki Maniototo Project as the nursery supplies their Year 2 plants.
Topics covered during the day were plant ID, seed processing, seed dormancy, seed sowing, pricking out, along with helpful hints, techniques, and recommended literature. Attendees took home a seed tray sown with native varieties of their choice and some freshly potted seedlings.
Want to know more about planting and propagation? Contact our catchment advisor team on email, catchments@orc.govt.nz.
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We’ve had people asking us where they should go to make a complaint if they’ve had a less than pleasant experience with stock effluent at an Stock Truck Effluent Disposal site (STED), on a road or state highway - here’s the low down on who’s who in poo.
Stock Truck Effluent Disposal Sites:
Maintenance is split between district councils and ORC depending on where they are. This time of year, with stock on the move, we occasionally receive calls about overflows. ORC manages Chatto Creek (Brassknocker), Tarras and Raes Junction.
Contact our 24/7 pollution hotline on 0800 800 033 to report a problem.
When it comes to effluent on the roads that looks like it might make its way to a waterway, the ORC pollution hotline also wants to know.
Scroll below for a shout out to a truckie using an STED site.
If the poo is on a state highway, note the name and number plate of the stock truck if possible, and contact Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency on 0800 44 44 49.
If the discharge is on a road, not a highway, the relevant district council is your first stop.
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Galaxiid Monitoring Program
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Q: What’s a Galaxiid? A: ancient freshwater fish named for it’s galaxy like pattern of golden speckles. Interesting fact: Doesn’t have scales!
The Tiaki Maniototo Galaxiid Monitoring Program, which keeps an eye on the numbers of these interesting fish and where they go on their travels, aims to increase the known range, population density, and abundance of galaxiids and work with farmers to conserve these taonga species for future generations.
Pictured is 4-year-old Matilda Hickey helping out her Dad, Matt Hickey (Freshwater Ecologist), who were with Brett Dungey (ORC Contractor) monitoring Galaxiids at Kyeburn Station recently. |
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New provisions for managing water and effluent going live
Otago farmers preparing resource consent applications can look forward to now working under one set of provisions, instead of two - designed to further protect freshwater quality across the province through good farming practices.
The ORC last week ratified changes to the operative Regional Plan: Water for Otago, which now allows some key parts of proposed “Plan change 8” (PC8) that relate to rural discharges to become operative, from 4 June.
New fact sheets and other information will be made available across the website here.
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Top truckie
Cheers to this driver, stopping at our new-(ish) Tarras STED (Stock Truck Effluent Disposal site) this morning to use the facility. 👍
Untreated effluent, when spilled on our highways, can have significant safety impacts for other road users, as well as polluting the environment when it is washed into local waterways, so it’s always grand to see our truckie friends using these sites.
To learn more about Moving Day and the different STEDs across Otago, go to: www.orc.govt.nz/effluent
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| Don’t float your boat(shed)
If you own a boatshed, you might have received a letter from our Compliance Team recently about your structural report. All ORC consents require your boatshed to have a fresh structural report put together by either a structural engineer or a registered builder, certifying that the structure is sound. This makes sure the boatshed is ship shape but not inclined to drift out to sea during stormy weather.
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Find out about monthly Otago Regional Council meetings here.
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Feel free to forward this email to anyone who might like to read it.
If you have been forwarded this email, you can sign up here.
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