Greater Wellington News

Public excitement over Waiwhetu Stream clean up

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:25:00 +1300

People shared stories of fishing in the lower Waiwhetu Stream and excitement about its environmental prospects at a public walkover organised by Greater Wellington on March 16.

Sixty Lower Hutt residents spent over an hour walking over the stream clean up project discussing the toxic nature of the material being removed from the stream bed, the difficulties of doing this and the 20,000 plants that will go in to beautify and enhance the area.

Graham Hean, of Waiwhetu Road, remembered the days when you could still catch and eat freshwater crayfish from the stream, while another resident talked of netting grey mullet and flounder at the mouth of the stream.

Other residents spoke about looking forward to having a clean stream in their neighbourhood. Michael Taylor and his wife are expecting twins and he can see definite potential for taking them walking along the stream track that will be built.

Lisa Bridson from the Waiwhetu Stream Working Group and her daughter Megan are looking forward to getting stuck into planting up the banks of the stream.

The plantings will be a mix of specimen trees and grassed areas in the open spaces, and native streamside plants to help hold the banks together and improve the habitat for native fish. There will be a substantial native saltmarsh planting around the urupa site at the lower reaches of the stream to recreate a more natural environment for this special area.

The deepening and widening of the channel to decrease the risk of flooding impressed many of the people there. The new channel will cope with a flood the size of the February 2004 event that saw water pour through 70 properties and cause several million dollars damage.

Chair of the Waiwhetu Stream Advisory Sub-Committee Prue Lamason was delighted with the positive response from everyone who attended.

“This is the first time a project of this size has been attempted in New Zealand and the people who live and work near the stream really appreciate it,” says Cr Lamason.

For more information, contact our media team

Improvements to Box Hill and Johnsonville Stations

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:49:00 +1300

Improvements are set to begin to Box Hill Station on the Johnsonville Line. The station will close temporarily on 3 May for up to two months while the platform is extended to the south and re-surfaced.

Box Hill is the latest in a series of stations around the Wellington region that are being upgraded as part of the wider rail improvement programme. Work on Johnsonville Station is also expected to start in late April, although the station will remain open.

Wellington Region Rail Programme Director David Gordon said these two were the last of the Johnsonville Line stations to get the upgrade treatment, following work over the past year on other stations on the line.

“Passengers have appreciated the improved platforms elsewhere along the line so while the construction work is disruptive, I hope people can be patient with us and keep the end goal in sight,” David Gordon said.

“Unfortunately construction constraints mean we simply can’t keep Box Hill station open while we’re working on the platform.”

Passengers who normally use Box Hill will need to use adjacent Khandallah or Simla Crescent stations. More information is available at Tranz Metro or by calling Metlink on 0800 801 700.

Johnsonville Station will remain open while a short extension is added to its southern end and the entire platform resurfaced.

The Wellington Region Rail Programme is a joint initiative between KiwiRail (Tranz Metro and ONTRACK) and Greater Wellington Regional Council to improve passenger rail services.

The $550 million programme includes:

A fleet of new electric trains – the Matangi trains
Extension of electrification and double tracked lines to take commuter services to Waikanae;
Installation of power supply equipment and railway signalling;
Adding another line into Wellington Railway Station to reduce delays;
Making the Johnsonville Line tunnels larger; and
Improving a number of platform and station facilities.

Ends

Issued by KiwiRail

For more information, contact our media team.

Dog exclusion ends

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:17:00 +1300

Dogs are now allowed back into Greater Wellington Regional Council (GW) managed land at the Hutt Water Collection Area, the western part of Kaitoke Regional Park and the Akatarawa Saddle area after last August’s aerial 1080 drop to control possums.

All warning signs are being taken down this week (March 8-12, 2010).

Dogs were excluded from these three areas (comprising 11,000 hectares in total) on August 7, 2009, until GW could be certain that all poisoned possums had completely decomposed and were no longer a threat to scavenging dogs.

Undigested 1080 baits are often left in a possum’s gut after it has died from 1080 poisoning. This is a threat to any animal that might eat the contents of the gut. The scavenging nature of dogs makes them particularly susceptible.

GW General Manager Utilities and Services says cooler than normal spring and summer conditions meant some of the possum carcasses took seven months to break down.

“We monitor carcasses in the operation area and have them independently tested until there is no longer any poison residue,” says Mr Kennedy.

“The operation area covered land as high as 1300 metres above sea level and carcasses up in these cold and wet areas took a long time to decompose.

“Seven months is a long time to exclude dogs, but no one wants to take risks regarding the wellbeing of a family’s pet.”

The possum control operation was to help safeguard the public water supply and protect forest biodiversity.

For more information, contact our media team

Great guided walks this weekend

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:26:00 +1300

Make sure you book a place on a Greater Wellington guided walk this weekend (20-21 March), taking you deep into the valleys and high on the hilltops of our regional parks and forests.

“The walks are a great introduction to parks for those who haven’t visited before – they are led by experts who know the area well and will share their knowledge and enthusiasm for these special places. The walks are also a fun way to rediscover these areas, if you’ve visited before,” says Greater Wellington’s Parks Marketing and Design Manager Amanda Cox.

Ridge Track Adventure

Kaitoke Region Park

Saturday 20 March, 10am-3pm

Cost: $7 per person (includes bus ride from Kaitoke Regional Park to the start of the Ridge Track at Te Marua)

Booking essential: 04 801 1041, bookings@gw.govt.nz

Moderate fitness required.

There’s an incredible variety of landscapes on this 9km guided walk. Participants will see regenerating and indigenous forest with panoramic views of the Hutt Valley and Tararuas, ending up in Kaitoke Regional Park’s Rivendell.

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Pakuratahi Forest

Saturday 20 March, 9am-5.30pm

Cost: Adults $27, under 14s $12. Price includes bus, lunchtime sausage sizzle, afternoon tea and museum entry.

Booking essential: 04 801 1041, bookings@gw.govt.nz

Moderate fitness required

Join Greater Wellington guides and the Fell Engine Society’s Graeme Jupp for a 17km (but easy!) walk along the Rimutaka Rail, exploring our unique railway history. Take afternoon tea at Featherston’s Fell Museum, where you can see the trains that used the rail, then bus back to Upper Hutt.

Farm to Coast

Battle Hill Farm Forest Park to Queen Elizabeth Park

Sunday 21 March, 7.45am-5pm

Cost: $12 per person

Booking essential: 04 801 1041, bookings@gw.govt.nz

For the fit only!

Join Greater Wellington and Parawai Tramping Club at Queen Elizabeth Park before bussing to Battle Hill. We head up through pine forest to the native bush of Mt Wainui before dropping into Whareroa Farm and back to Queen Elizabeth Park. The views are spectacular – on a clear day you can see the whole spread of the Kapiti Coast and even Mt Taranaki and Mt Ruapehu.

These walks are part of Greater Wellington’s Great Outdoors summer events programme. Find out more at www.gw.govt.nz/events

For more information, contact our media team

Public walkover - Waiwhetu Stream Project

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +1300

Come and have a look at the progress on the Waiwhetu Stream Clean-up Project with chair of the Waiwhetu Stream Advisory Sub-Committee Prue Lamason on Tuesday, March 16 from 6 - 7pm.

Prue Lamason will be hosting a public walkover of the project to give people an insight into the complexities of cleaning up New Zealand’s most polluted waterway and what it will look like when the project is finished.

“It’s a mammoth task returning a contaminated and barren stream back to something far more natural that supports fish and can be enjoyed by the community,” says Cr Lamason.

“Everyone is welcome to come and see the progress that is being made.”

“We expect the first phase of removing the contamination and widening and deepening the stream to make it less flood prone to be finished by the end of May, if the good weather continues.

“From May we will begin an extensive planting and landscape enhancement programme to help protect the banks, provide wildlife habitat and make it a more natural and enjoyable area to be in.”

Cr Lamason says: “This is a great example of Central, Regional and Local Government working together to achieve a joint goal of improved flood protection, environmental cleanup and stream enhancement.”

The flooding in the February 2004 storm is what originally drove the need to widen and deepen the channel. When the stream overtopped its banks during that storm about 70 homes and businesses, mainly at the south of Riverside Drive were flooded, causing several million dollars damage.

The widening and deepening was not able to be done until the contamination was cleaned up and hence the development of the combined project cleaning up the stream and doing the widening and deepening.

The next phase of the flood plan management planning process will be working with the community on how best to manage the flood risk that still remains in the area. There is still a significant flood risk in some areas and a sustainable approach needs to be taken to managing this risk.

The walkover will begin at the Pelorus Trust Sportshouse, Hutt Park, Seaview at 6pm on Tuesday, March 16. Parking is available at the Stopout football clubrooms carpark next to the Pelorus Trust Sportshouse.

For more information, contact our media team

Warm Greater Wellington scheme ready to go

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:13:00 +1300

From early April 2010, ratepayers in the Greater Wellington region can apply to the Regional Council for up to $2,600 as a top up for support offered by EECA for home insulation and clean heating for their homes. This money will be repaid through a targeted rate against the property over the following nine years.

Greater Wellington’s Chair Fran Wilde said that this scheme should help to accelerate the uptake of the Government’s Warm Up New Zealand Heat Smart scheme in the region.

“Modern insulation systems and clean heating appliances mean that people shouldn’t be living in cold and unhealthy homes. As well as health benefits, insulation also reduces heating costs and adds value to properties. Our Council believes that this new scheme is a way it can offer tangible benefits to all of the region’s residential property owners.

“This initiative also offers benefits in terms of reduced air pollution from open fires – important in towns like Masterton and Greytown – and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

“In addition to the assistance currently available through EECA, Greater Wellington will provide up to $2,600 per property (including GST), and a total spending cap for this scheme of $3 million per year. This means up to 1,150 households in the region can be helped out each year,” Fran Wilde said.

This scheme is designed to be self-funding and will not impose any additional costs on regional ratepayers other than those who own properties covered by the scheme. Greater Wellington will charge interest on any funding taken up under this scheme.

Further information can be found at www.gw.govt.nz/warmer-gw or by calling 0800 496 734 during business hours.

For more information, contact our media team

Tsunami alert for Wellington Region

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:32:00 +1300

Residents and visitors to low lying coastal areas in the Wellington region are advised to take care, listen to their radios for status updates and be prepared to evacuate to higher ground if necessary to avoid tsunami following a major earthquake in Chile overnight. The quake at 8:34pm Saturday New Zealand time, registered 8.8 on the Richter Scale causing massive devastation and hundreds of deaths.

Further status updates and wave data is available from the New Zealand Civil Defence web site at http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf

Civil Defence also has a Twitter and RSS update service in real time.

Background information on Tsunami, including evacuation maps for the Wellington region, can be found here.

Wainuiomata water pipeline upgrade

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:09:00 +1300

Greater Wellington is replacing 300m of water supply pipeline along Wainuiomata’s Main Road to improve the security of our water supply in a major earthquake.

In 2003 a geotechnical report commissioned by Greater Wellington identified that the current water supply pipe is likely to fail in a major earthquake, as the site on Wainuiomata’s Main Road where the pipe crosses with Black Creek is prone to liquefaction (when solid ground becomes loose and take on a liquid quality due to strong shaking).

“The current pipe has served the community extremely well – it’s 125 years-old and is still supplying top grade water to our region’s four cities. However, the upgrade of the Black Creek section is critical for “future proofing” our water supply system and increasing the community’s resilience in a major earthquake,” says Murray Kennedy, General Manager of Greater Wellington’s Utilities and Services Group.

Work will begin in the first week of March and go for up to 10 weeks, taking place between 83 Main Road and the carpark behind Louise Bilderbeck hall (103 Main Road). Greater Wellington’s contractors will replace the 750mm diameter old pipe with a 900mm diameter fully-welded steel pipe that is more likely to withstand a major earthquake and is designed to hang like a snake if liquefaction occurs. The new pipe will serve not only as a replacement for the old pipe but also as a replacement for a parallel pipe that dates back to the 1920s, once it reaches the end of its life.

Traffic disruptions will be kept to a minimum but minor delays will occur. The contractor will maintain one lane of traffic each way along Main Road. The bus stops outside 90 Main Road and 93 Main Road will be relocated a short distance down the road for a short period of time. Access to all properties, driveways and footpaths will be maintained.

A small number of trees in Williams Jones Park are currently on top or near the pipeline and will need to be removed. Replacement trees will be planted away from the pipeline, in consultation with Hutt City Council.

Water supply to properties won’t be affected. The parallel pipe will be used to maintain water supply throughout the duration of the project.

The project is estimated to cost $850,000. Greater Wellington will continue to upgrade the Wainuiomata water supply pipeline, with replacements in less vulnerable areas over the next 10 years.

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Need help with environmental restoration?

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:04:00 +1300

Are you working to manage, preserve or restore the region’s natural environment? If so, now’s a good time to apply for assistance from Greater Wellington’s community environmental programme, Take Care.

Through Take Care Greater Wellington gives financial support and specialist assistance to community groups to work on environmental projects to restore our region's most threatened ecosystems, including rivers and streams, lakes and wetlands, estuaries, dunes and coastlines.

Preference is given to projects which help the environment over the long term by restoring an area’s ecological integrity. Projects need to aim to become self-supporting, promote community involvement and help people to take more responsibility for caring for the environment.

“The Take Care programme is a partnership with the community to help solve local environmental problems with as little red tape or fuss as possible,” Greater Wellington’s Community Environmental Projects team leader Robyn Smith says.

“Our main aim is to provide support to communities and encourage greater stewardship of their local environment. We’re in the 10^th year of the programme now and in that time we’ve seen many groups enhance local biodiversity and also develop a sense of community.”

Applications close on 19 March 2010. “There are a limited number of places available within the program, so it pays to be in quick as we can’t guarantee that all projects which fit our criteria will be funded.”

Find out How to Apply or for more information contact Jo Fagan or Juzah Zammit-Ross, P 801 1027 or E Jo.Fagan@gw.govt.nz, Juzah.Zammit-Ross@gw.govt.nz

Toxic algae linked to dog death in Waipoua River

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:59:00 +1300

A dog has died after coming into contact with potentially toxic blue-green algae in the Waipoua River. The dog, a young Pointer Cross, died shortly after coming into contact with the river at Bentley St in Masterton on Monday afternoon. The symptoms experienced by the dog indicate poisoning by toxin producing blue-green algae as the most likely cause of death.

Growth of blue-green algal mats is currently very widespread in the lower reaches of the Waipoua River and Greater Wellington and Regional Public Health are asking the public to avoid contact with this part of the river.

Warning signs advising people to avoid contact recreation and dog walking have been in place along the Waipoua River from Opaki Rd downstream since mid-January when widespread growth of blue-green algal mats first became evident. Masterton District Council has also placed warning signs at river access points from the railway bridge downstream, including Bentley St.

Warm and dry weather combined with low river flows has caused the mats to proliferate over the past two weeks. In some places blue-green algal mats have come loose from the river bed and washed up on the river’s edge where they are easily accessible to dogs, stock and recreational users.

Greater Wellington undertakes weekly assessment of blue-green algae cover at 21 river sites throughout the region and together with Regional Public Health and territorial authorities communicates the risk to river users with a protocol based on the recently released New Zealand Guidelines for Cyanobacteria in Recreational Fresh Waters.

Blue-green algal mats are actually a dark brown or black colour and grow attached to rocks on the river bed. Algal mats can come loose from the riverbed and form floating "rafts" in shallow areas. They should not be confused with the harmless bright green algae which grow in fluffy patches or long strands.

Regional Public Health advises everyone to avoid contact with toxic algae in rivers or on their banks.

Contact (skin contact, swallowing) can cause rashes, skin and eye irritation, allergic reactions, gastrointestinal upset, and other effects in humans. The toxins can be fatal to dogs and they are particularly at risk because they like to scavenge near water.

If any person or animal in your care exhibits signs of illness after being near the river/s, contact your doctor or vet immediately.

More information about toxic algae and current warnings can be found at www.gw.govt.nz/toxic-algae. If you see any blue-green algal mats, contact Greater Wellington (04 384 5708) or an environmental health officer at your local council.