Where we used to swim: Lake Horowhenua's health a testament to people-made pollution
Tuesday, 24 December 2019
Where we used to swim: Once a pristine lake teaming with kai, Lake Horowhenua's water now resembles pea soup, writes Jono Galuszka.
He cannot take his eyes off of it.
Philip Taueki's gaze settles on Lake Horowhenua each time he catches a glimpse of it.
The biggest lake in the wider Manawatū, it gleams in the summer sun as birds nestle on its surface.
But get to the edge of the lake and it turns into pea soup, green algae tainting the water.
'Even in this sick state it's still beautiful,' Taueki says, the sadness obvious in his voice.
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He has lived by the lake since 2004, acting as a kaitiaki for what used to be a source of kai and mana for Muaūpoko, the iwi he belongs to.
It is now in a state where swimming in it is out of the question, the water so toxic a NIWA scientist said in 2012 a small child could die if enough of it was swallowed.
The stench is horrid, wafting over nearby Donnelly Park where people play football in the winter and permeating the lake domain in the height of summer.
Sediment and nutrient get to the lake from drains and farmland, while the lake bed is choked with weeds.
Those factors encourage the production of toxic blue-green algae, which gets so bad some summers the surface of the lake looks like a sponge.
Horowhenua District Council putting wastewater and stormwater, containing high levels of nutrients and sediment, into the lake is a long-term issue.
While wastewater stopped going to the lake from 1987, stormwater is still put in – despite the council never having a resource consent to do so.
The council did not provide someone to be interviewed, with a communications advisor saying it was better to give a statement due to the historic nature of the matter and need for information from 'multiple sources'.
The statement says there was no monitoring of the quality of water going through the stormwater drains until recently, but $5.5 million had been set aside for any improvements required.
Politics is why the lake languishes in its current state, with court challenges, infighting, threats and differences of opinion between councils, iwi members and governing boards hampering efforts to make progress.
But a fix is not simple, even if everyone agreed on a way forward.
Horizons Regional Council freshwater manager Logan Brown says cleaning up a lake is far harder than a river, comparing the former to a sink without a plug.
If all human activity around Lake Horowhenua stopped today, it would take 99 years for the lake to become healthy again, he says.
The council wants to mow the weeds on the bottom of the lake, as they store nitrogen during winter and release it during summer, encouraging the production of algae.
A NIWA report from 2019 recommended limiting the amount of nutrient getting to the lake, with market gardners working together to prevent runoff.
A Waitangi Tribunal report from 2017 recommended the establishment of a new governing body to make decisions on how to clean up the lake, but no progress has been made on that.
Meanwhile, Taueki and other Muaūpoko members wait in frustration.
The lake bed is the resting place for many Muaūpoko massacred when Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa and his forces descended on the area in the 1820s.
Taueki is most concerned about people heading to the lake today.
There are no signs up warning about the state of the water, and he fears the fumes are affecting his health after 15 years living a stone's throw from the water.
He hopes the new governing body will unite people wanting a clean lake, and he wants it in his lifetime.
'I don't want to hand this to the next generation. Their lives shouldn't be consumed with this.
'If you had the same relationship with it, it would consume you as well.'