Welcome to the Midnight Collective Broadsheet 95
Actively
supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds
This
post is for Harvey Franklin
1928-2015
Professor
of Geography – Victoria University – Wellington NZ
“There are no authorities, only evidence.”
We are
continuing the story of the polluting of the Wharemauku by the Government
consortium led by the NZTA, currently constructing an expressway that has
destroyed a rare Raumti Beach dune lake.
This will take a while, so bear with us.
We
posted this foto on our last blog to show how seriously the NZTA isn’t taking
its environmental responsibilities (as mandated by a Board of Inquiry). This
intake monitor set in the Wharemuku, measures pollution levels before the creek
passes through the expressway excavations. The NZTA has made a grandiose show of
its commitment to best environmental practice, (through the media and clipboard
hoardings), but this monitor, which had been sitting above the water level
since at least July, tells a very different story.
 |
| Upstream monitor 11 October |
Following
the post however, we find that the NZTA has stirred itself and fixed it. It’s
too late of course, because we’ve been recording their performance over two
years now, but it does provide a lesson in effective environmental activism.
What is driving this project are financial and political urgencies. There are
contract deadlines to meet and the usual dismal array of politicians to appease. So
believe nothing you read or hear, but everything you research for yourself. The
environment will only come into account where the project gets negative air
time in the media. And this is starting to happen (-see Forest & Bird Magazine Spring 2015 –Why Would You Bulldoze This?) .
The
Wharemauku now appears to be permanently polluted in its lower reaches as a
result of the expressway excavations though you will only get a convincing
understanding of this, after prolonged investigation. It’s very complex, but
we’ve spent a lot of time on it, so let’s take a walk up the creek and try and
get a picture of what’s going on.
 |
| Wharemauku - back of airport looking towrads expressway |
This
is former swamp forest country so every time we get a reasonable rain of around
20-30mm the waterways discolour. A swamp black liquor seeps out as the water
drains through the underground peat and thence into the Wharemauku. No-one has a
good understanding of what is going on underground, including the NZTA which
admitted this to the Board of Inquiry. This creek is spring fed however, so the
water would usually clear after two or three days. Following the expressway
excavations however, the discolouration has become permanent. But where is it
coming from?
 |
| Polluted Wharemauku - lower reaches |
This
foto of the lower reaches of the creek was taken this morning. We haven’t had
significant rain for a week or more so it should be running clear, but isn’t.
As we move up the creek towards the expressway, there are two drains that feed
into it from the north around the airport. After rain these also run black, but
as you can see from these images they are now running clear clean water.
 |
| Northern Drain 1 running clear |
 |
| Northern drain 2 running clear |
This one (below) isn’t however. It comes in from the opposite, southern side of the wharemauku, and passes through the expressway excavations.
 |
| Pollutant from Drain 7 into Wharemauku |
It is
Drain 7 and here you see it feeding polluted water into the Wharemauku from the
south. It is itself part of a network of manmade waterways that drain water
through the south of this part of Raumati. These drains never dry up which
indicates they may have a common source underground, somewhere up in the nearby
Tararua foothills. If the water is clear to the north it should also be clear
to the south, but it isn’t. The only new activity in this area is the
expressway construction so Drain 7 must be picking up its pollutant as it passes
through expressway disturbance.
 |
| Wharemauku above Drain 7 |
Above
Drain 7 the Wharemauku is more discoloured than it should be, but not
unacceptably so. The pollutant here appears to be seeping through from the
bridge site because it is clear above it, while the NZTA has set a net to catch
the worst of it as it prepares to divert the Wharemauku around its bridge building site.
 |
| Pollutant netted in the Wharemauku |
 |
| Hidden drain at expressway site - one source of the bad stuff in Drain 7 |
We
have taken enough of your time however, and will continue this story in our
next post, (in a couple of days)…
Meanwhile we’ll leave you with some good news
about the dabchicks we featured in a fracas in August at the Waikanae estuary.
8 weeks later they have emerged out on the lagoon and for the first time we
have two chicks.
 |
| Two parents -father foreground - two white flecked chick heads behind Mum |
The parents hide them away in the rushes while they feed, so
it’s difficult getting clean shots. They then ferry them back to their base on
their backs. They can have 3 or even four chicks and we always wondered how
they ferried so many.
 |
| Up for the ride - On Mum - head of one - legs sticking out of the other |
The female has two chicks on her back here, but they
shared them on the ride home. These youngsters are getting to a size where the
parents are refusing to carry them, but over clear water they become vulnerable
to kahu (and eels), so up onto the parents backs they go.
 |
| Parents uploaded and heading home |
Song
we were listening to while posting this. Ok, we’re not schmaltz addicts but
some of you out there will be, so we’re listening to this for you. Since
I don’t have you - The Skyliners
I don't have plans and schemes,
And I don't have hopes and dreams,
I-I-I don't have anything
Since I don't have you.
Can it
get more mawkish than this? Of course it can…
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