Running out of water: Wairarapa communities scrambling to bolster their future supply

Sunday, 1 November 2020

The Waingawa River which supplies Masterton's water was reduced to a trickle last summer.

As the nearby Waingawa River slows to a trickle in summer, Sean McBride wonders if his, and the jobs of hundreds of other Wairarapa workers, are going to dry up too.

McBride is a manager of one of the region’s biggest employers, JNL timber mill, and he understands the implications for local industry of new minimum flow restrictions on the horizon.

‘The Mill’ south of Masterton is one of many industrial users hoping plans for a 28 million cubic metre reservoir in the Tararua foothills becomes a reality.

The future of JNL timber mill may be in doubt if water was cut of during the driest parts of the year.

JNL uses up to 300,000 litres of water per day from the Masterton supply. Under proposed new rules due to kick in around mid-2022, when the Waingawa River drops below increased minimum flow limits, industrial use would be cut off.

* Total watering ban across Wairarapa is the first in 10 years

* Industrial area plagued by poor intersections

* The complex story of Masterton's water

Masterton District Council is going to have to increase its storage at its water treatment plant if the reservoir proposal does not go ahead.

McBride said without water they cannot operate and they may have to close for part of the year.

The proposed Wakamoekau Community Water Storage Scheme in north Wairarapa is designed to supply urban, industrial and agricultural needs.

“The risk is that if you shut down for two months you may not open up again. That’s not using scare tactics, that’s just the reality.”

The plant employs around 350 staff but more than 1000 workers could be affected when taking into account support industries.

Like much of New Zealand, heightened demand, climate change, raised environmental standards and aging infrastructure in Wairarapa have turned water supply into one of our most pressing issues.

Last year was the first summer when all three Wairarapa councils were forced to put a blanket watering ban in place for most of the summer.

Masterton’s council has set aside $5.5 million to increase its storage capacity at its water supply plant on the Waingawa River, which would increase its holding capacity from three days to 36 days’ supply, but that still may not be enough.

Assets and operations manager David Hopman said the problem wasn’t that rivers were running dry, it was that to maintain their health they had to leave significant volumes running through them.

He said timeframes and limits set out in the regional council’s Whaitua chapter of the Natural Resources Plan will set the rules sometime next year.

The knight in shining armour to solve some of Wairarapa’s water woes is the prospect of a large reservoir in the foothills of the Tararuas. The proposed scheme would be capable of supplying 28 million cubic metres of water per annum but the project is by no means a done deal.

Its backers are keen to pitch it as a different beast to the aborted Ruataniwha scheme in the Hawke’s Bay.

Wairarapa Water Limited chief executive Robyn Wells said the Wakamoekau Community Water Storage Scheme is about doing water storage differently.

Not new to Parliament, newly elected Wairarapa electorate MP Kieran McAnulty now has the mandate to represent the region on issues such as water resilience and the proposed water scheme.

“By different, we mean sustainable water storage that delivers positive outcomes to the whole community, carefully balancing the cultural, social, environmental and economic needs of our region - where all parts are equally important as the others.

“We hope that by providing water security for the region in a way that the community wants it, we will unlock opportunities for a thriving and inclusive region,” she said.

Wairarapa Water aims to lodge a resource consent application by the end of the year, but there will be a lot of water to go under the bridge if construction were to begin as early as 2022.

Hopman said that project could replace the need for Masterton to build more water storage of its own.

“There’s a lot of work still to be done on the commercial viability of that - and the constructibility and consentability.”

“We’re working with Wairarapa Water on helping them answer some of those questions.”

Even if it stacks up, it’s not going to solve all the region’s water supply issues.

Though the Government was lukewarm on large-scale irrigation schemes during the last term, it did give considerable support to the Wairarapa storage project, with another $7 million dollars from the Provincial Growth Fund to take it through the preconstruction phase.

Newly minted Wairarapa electorate MP Kieran McAnulty is throwing his weight behind the project.

“If a scheme like this stacks up economically and environmentally then it’s a no-brainer.”

Carterton Mayor Greg Lang said his council is tackling water issues on several fronts.

He said the Wairarapa storage scheme stood out from other proposals such as Ruataniwha because it was not just focused on intensified farming.

“They have identified early on that this is just as much about water resilience as it is about economic growth.”

Farther down the valley, towns such as Martinborough have struggled with supply contamination in their bores, in part due to too much pressure on underground aquifers.

South Wairarapa District Council chief executive Harry Wilson said they have their own set of problems which won’t necessarily be solved by a reservoir up the top of the valley.

The three South Wairarapa towns of Featherston, Martinborough and Greytown extract their water from the ground using bores which draw from aquifers recharged by the rivers.

“If you take too much water out then the recharge relationship doesn’t happen, you end up with the rivers in such a low flow condition, that the biological health of the system is impacted.”

Barry Gleeson of Kiwi Wood Processing says without water industry Wairarapa will be stifled. His yard is in the Waingawa Industrial Park near Masterton

Last year Martinborough was forced to endure water contamination issues that rolled on for months.

“If the river gets low and you get nitrogen, phosphorus and contaminants in the river system then it turns into soup and you’ll get an algal bloom.”

Carterton was one of the three councils which had to institute a total watering ban last year, but was one of the first to introduce water metering.

Mayor Greg Lang said they are undertaking “a multitude of different things” to make sure they have security of supply in the future.

“In our current long term plan and the one we’re setting at the moment, it is an extreme priority.”

The town takes water from the Kaipatangata Stream to the west and extracts from bores in town.

“They’re all subject to different consents and conditions.”

Part of central government’s boost was funding for an airborne hydrology survey of the whole Wairarapa to attempt to map out underground reservoirs which may help them find better sources of water, Wilson said.

Federated Farmers Wairarapa president William Beetham said though farmers were concerned about water issues, he stressed they needed to view it as an opportunity.

“We can really start to develop our own product lines and water is going to be vital to that. Making sure we have secure water for the resilience of our community.”

Waingawa industrial park landowner Barry Gleeson of Kiwi Wood Processing said prospective businesses were staying away because of uncertainty around water supply.

“Without that water supply you really limit what opportunities you create in the region.”

A 2017 NIWA climate change report predicted the number of hot days over 25C in Wairarapa every year may increase from 24 days now to 94 days by 2090. It also predicted less rain in spring, summer and autumn.

In its medium-term forecast for this summer NIWA expects normal or below normal rainfall and higher than normal temperatures to accompany the La Nina weather pattern.