WDC Lisa Nairne 07 872 0062 | 027 532 1760 | lisa.nairne@waipadc.govt.nz

Victoria Bridge closed to allow for structural evaluation

24 August 2011

Cambridge’s Victoria Bridge has been closed to all traffic following the identification of a slip that may have compromised the bridge supports.

Waipa District Council Roading Corridor Manager Dawn Inglis said contractors working on stabilising an earlier slip had identified another which meant the bridge now required a further geotech investigation to confirm the bank stability.

“Because we recognise this could be a serious safety issue it is the appropriate the bridge is closed until further notice to allow further investigation to take place,” she said.

During this time the only access from Leamington to the Cambridge township will be by using the low-level bridge that links Shakespeare Street to State Highway 1.

An update on the situation will be issued at 10am tomorrow.

Geyser at Wai O Tapu

I wanted to see the geyser and the thermal activity over there. One gets a ticket for 30NZD and can visit both attractions. When they told me that the geysers activity would be at 1015 am I was surprised as I was wondering how they were able to define that time so clearly, this only to find out that when we reached the geysers “eruption place” another about 300 people were waiting there. Some guy from the Department of Conservation told us a bit of the history and how this geyser was found and then basically poured soap into the geyser and it erupted shortly thereafter, great! So all is set up with clear timings for the tourists. Normally the geyser would be active every 48-72 hrs. But with this mixture it can erupt anytime you want it to. After this experience I went down to the thermal park and although there were many people (not used after having spent so many days away from civilisation lol) the experience was great!
Wai O Tapu thermal area is part of a scenic reserve and has seemingly the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in the Taupo volcanic area. The area is literally covered with collapsed craters cold and boiling pools of mud and steaming fumaroles and water. The whole volcanic activity is dating back about 160000 years. The Wai O Tapu stream ultimately flows into the Waikato River and out into the Tasman Sea. The water is so hot ( up to 300°C) that it absorbs minerals out of rocks which are then passed to the surface. Of course you know the rotten egg smell which is associated with hydrogen sulphide. You get a good portion there. The incredible colors one can see around these steaming lakes are due to different mineral elements.

Wai O Tapu

Some of the colors are: Black – Sulphur and Carbon, Yellow – Sulphur, White – Silica, Red-brown – Iron oxide, Green Colloidal sulphur and ferrous salts, Purple – for Manganese oxide and Orange – standing for Antimony. I think one of the most interesting Craters is the Bird´s nest Crater where swallows and starlings nest in holes on the wall of this crater. The heat from below rises up the walls and incubates the eggs! All in all is was a great experience.
We finally continued to Rotorua and after checking-in in a Chinese Motel (!) I got myself some Indian food. Not too bad and very hot, just the way I like it. In Rotorua we had a special Maori guide who took us around a Maori village and explained a lot of things to me in regard to Maori history..

Blue Lake, near Rotorua

The next day we walked around the blue lake near Rotorua. A 2 hrs walk through the jungle alongside the lake. I could not stop taking pictures and filming. The impressions are too many.
Rotorua? Yes, there are some nice things in Rotorua….especially hot springs everywhere. People even heat up their houses with them. The same evening we encountered something totaly different, another special Maori experience…I´ll tell you more another time…

Blue Pool, Taupo, New Zealand

In July 2004, before departing my then home in Tyler, TX for a New Zealand/Australia trip with my mom, I rented Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Knowing the film was shot in New Zealand and knowing we would go to some of the locations, I wanted to be able to recognize some of the scenery. A 3-hour movie of that genre was not my cup of tea. I kept falling asleep and having to rewind and replay. I got through the movie — though not fully awake — just in time to catch my flight. Qantas (our airline) managed to lose my garment bag with my nice, white, pinstriped pant-suit with jacket. I was not happy with their not being able to locate such an obvious item, even with my detailed description. A frustrating start but a picturesque journey through some of the world’s southernmost points ahead…

Auckland
New Zealand’s biggest city also has become one of my favorites — great food, city life, and fun water recreation. Known as the “City of Sails,” Auckland is located off Mission Bay — full of sailboats, of course. We looked down over the city from atop Mt. Eden. We shopped and dined on Parnell Street, saw homes of the wealthy on Pericot Drive, dined some more on Tamaki Drive (an international strip), and spent some time at Sky City on Queen Street. A tour took us to Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and Auckland Museum.

Taupo
Perfectly manicured farmland and beautiful landscapes of serene pastels provide the backdrop of a drive through Taupo. The fantastical scenery goes on for miles and miles and miles. I’ve never seen anything like it. The city is home to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and Waikato River, both of which we enjoyed. A Huka Jet Boat ride past Huka Falls on Lake Taupo completed our stay.

Matamata
To make my hours-long torture of watching Lord of the Rings worth it, we saw Hobbiton in Matamata, where part of the movie was filmed.

Rotorua
A Hangi (feast) and concert in Maori Village let us see how the indigenous Maori warriors of New Zealand live. In appearance and rituals, they’re similar to other tribal groups in other countries. We soaked ourselves in the geothermal hot springs and saw other unique natural features, including the Ngamokaiakoko Mud Pool, Pohutu Geyser, and Blue Pool. Then I got hands on at the Rainbow Farm farm show, feeding milk bottles to lambs and watching sheep herding and shearing.

Australia

Julie with a kangaroo, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney, Australia

The parts of Australia I saw in New South Wales were a combination of sophisticated cities and the wild outback you see in movies.

Melbourne
Near the top of my favorite cities list, Melbourne is home to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the mother church of the Catholic Archdiocese there. The city’s first settler is remembered with his namesake, Captain Cook’s Cottage and situated near a lush garden conservatory. It’s always interesting to see how the same war is memorialized around the world, as I saw with the World War II Monument overlooking Remembrance Garden. We also browsed through the elegant National Gallery of Victoria and The Arts Centre.

Phillip Island
No doubt one of the most unbelievable experiences I’ve ever had was the popular Penguin Parade on the coast of Phillip Island, situated on Western Port near Bass Strait. Sitting on a set of bleachers with other tourists and looking out onto the ocean was like staring off the edge of the earth. As the sun set on the horizon and the sky turned a steel blue-grey, small penguins, one by one, began emerging from the water. It was the end of another day, and they were swimming back to shore. They hopped onto the sandy beach and waddled past us and into their sleeping holes for the night. It was like a dream. And nature took my breath away.

Canberra

Three Sisters Rock, Canberra, Australia

Australia’s capital of Canberra is a geometrically designed series of gardens that’s home to the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House. The beautiful Lake Burley Griffin and Mt. Ainslie are part of the city’s breathtaking scenery. From the Blue Mountains, you can step out onto Mary’s Lookout and see the Three Sisters Rock, which looks just like it sounds (a series of three rock formations). Atop the mountain, we got the chance to experience a taste of The Mountain Devil, the world’s steepest mountain ride. The path leading up to the top is lined with eucalyptus tree — a koala’s favorite. We saw the cute, cuddly marsupial at the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where I got to pet a wallaby and jump around with kangaroos all around me. We also saw other native animals, including Australian birds, penguins, wallaroos, wombats, a grey-headed flying fox (bat), and a Tasmanian Devil.

Sydney

Julie outside Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour, Australia

Similar to Hong Kong but on a much smaller scale, Sydney is also set on a harbor surrounded by skyscrapers: the Sydney Harbor, overlooked by a military base and the architectural beauty that is the Sydney Opera House and Bridge. The acoustics are spectacular, as I discovered when I got the opportunity to sing the Italian aria O Mio Babbino Caro in front of visitors there. You can see the magnificent skyline from the Royal Botanic Gardens and on board a harbor cruise. While out on the water, we saw Pied Piper, a suburb with the most expensive homes in Australia. We later took a stroll along the country’s most famous beach, Bondi Beach, off Bondi Bay, which spills out into the Tasman Sea. We spent part of the evening at Darling Harbour, a cool hangout with trendy shops and restaurants.

There’s so much more to Australia and New Zealand I want to see and experience, including the Great Barrier Reef and the South Island of NZ (we were only on the North Island). Another trip there is on the horizon.

After enjoying the view and taking lots of pictures, I headed back down the mountain. The top lift has non-fixed chairs and there’s a fairly hairy moment as they speed up on the way out of the lift station in order to match the cable speed and you find yourself racing across a 30m chasm, but very quickly the peace and quiet of the journey returns.

After getting to the bottom lift I hopped back in the car and started the journey to Rotorua. The views of the national park on the way out were phenomenal, particularly of “Mount Doom”. Eventually, however, you leave the plateau and start a gentle descent towards Great Lake Taupo. The initial view of Taupo is absolutely breathtaking (am I using too many superlatives? Possibly). The lake itself contains over 59 cubic kilometres of water – I hate to keep comparing things, but to put this in perspective Loch Ness contains around 7.4 cubic km. It’s a BIG lake. The road winds down through Turangi and then alongside the lake for around two thirds of its length, before arriving in the town of Taupo.

I stopped to grab some lunch, then headed out of Taupo to the lovely Huka Falls. The Falls are at the start of the Waikato River, which is the only drainage point for Lake Taupo, and are formed when the river narrows from 100m across to only 15m. Over 220,000 litres of water per second pass through the forms and the clarity of the water gives it a beautiful blue colour.

From the Huka Falls I headed north towards Rotorua without stopping. The scenery changed quite significantly, becoming more arable in nature, but with the smell of rotten eggs becoming more prevalent. Finally I arrived at the shore of Lake Rotorua and explored the town a little after checking into my hotel. Rotorua is called Rotovegas by some Kiwis, which isn’t exactly a fair comparison, but it’s definitely the most touristy town I’ve seen so far in New Zealand.

Tomorrow I’ll spend some time exploring the hot springs and cultural highlights of the Bay of Plenty.

The thicker the line the more Nitrogen in the water

Yesterday (Saturday the 18th) a small group of Hamilton residents got together to demonstrate against the role Fonterra farmers play in the current state of the Waikato River. A banner was floated down the river from the Wellington Street beach reading “Fonterra stop shiting in our river!”* In front of this banner was a small raft fitted with total, on top of which was a very committed activist, the trousers of his business suit around his ankles reading the Fonterror times. With him went a few activists for steering and safety.

I should point out i helped out on the day, I helped assemble the raft and banner, but feeling a bit crook today and not particularly wanting to go swimming with cow shit I declined the opportunity to float down the river. A Waikato Times photographer was present so hopefully you will see photos shortly, I believe I managed to keep out of all the shots.

Anyway the point of this post was to explain why I care about the quality of the river. I was born in Hamilton and have lived here almost continuously since the age of 9, between the ages of 10 and 13 I spent a bit of time in and around the river. I once jumped of the Pukete bridge and floated down to the Flagstaff(Sewage) bridge, my friends and I used to spend a fair bit of our summers swimming in the River, particularly when you consider that I had a perfectly good swimming pool at home. My fondest memory of the river is however the times I went fishing along the banks, my friends and I would climb up into the branches of the trees that grew out over the water and drop sprat lines into the water. I can’t remember anyone ever catching anything, but sitting in a tree watching the fish swim around beneath you is an experience every kid should have, when a ray of light shone through the trees you could see right down to the tangled debris on the riverbed and see small fish darting around. The carp and larger fish were comparatively easy to spot, most exciting was when you saw an eel swimming in the depths.**

Well after the raft set off I decided to stop off at my favourite fishing spot on my way home. The trees were as I remembered them, but when I looked into the water I couldn’t see anything, there might have been fish in there, I couldn’t tell. Where the rays of light used to shine down to the bottom of the river they now just illuminated the top layer of ‘silt’ in the water. It was a sunny day in the school holidays and in my walk along the river I did not see any kids swimming or fishing, unlike my memories of my youth. There were a handful of boys swimming at the Wellington Street beach before the raft set off , so perhaps the impression I got was mistaken but it really seemed as if the river had lost its attraction to Hamilton youth.

Which brings me to my main point, the Waikato River is a communal resource, in the sense that everyone from it’s mouth to its headwaters uses the river in some way. However since I was little one particular segment of the Waikato population is depriving a significant section of the population of the use of the river. The dairy farmers practice high intensity farming on the advice of Fonterra knowing that the practice pollutes surrounding waterways. Compromise solutions that minimise run off into the rivers are ignored as they would cost the farmers money. So the model1998 version of me doesn’t get to enjoy the river the way I did before he was born.

Anyone who has had the good fortune of dealing with farmers on a regular basis while being labelled an environmentalist will be aware the majority of farmers feel a huge sense of entitlement to pollute our rivers. As far as they are concerned they make all the countries money, and therefore all our jobs, so we should all just get out of their way and let them make their money regardless of the costs to us. Something which I have always wanted to point out to these people is that if anything this was more true when the river was fishable and swimable. The river has gotten significantly dirtier in my lifetime, yet we people in Hamilton do not seem to be much richer or more employed as a result.

This is why I believe that the quality of the river is an issue of fairness the people along the banks of the Waikato are having their traditional usage of the river removed because a small group of the population wants to enrich themselves. It is possible for both dairy farmers and swimmers/fishers to use the river, as I alluded to above there are compromise solutions that allow both high intensity dairy farming and recreational use of the river. It is unfortunate that we live in a conflict based social system, effectively we are going to have to fight the dairy farmers and their allies in order to getting a fair deal when it comes to our river, yesterday was not the first skirmish in this battle, nor will it be the last. I believe that basic fairness will triumph however.

*Actually Shitting was represented using exclamation marks etc.

** Realistically we are talking between 1 and 2 metres deep, but remember I was only little.

• 38.5km of pipe
• pumping up to 150,000 cu. m per day
• using 7.9MW
• of which 5.5MW at the high lift pump station

Estimated number of truck movements to construct:

• 1300 pipe trucks
• 34650 cleanfill truck movements/loads
• 5550 granular backfill trucks
• 3485 hardfill trucks
• 880 basecourse trucks
• 4650 general trucks
• 890 reinstatement trucks
• TOTAL 62,090

Total car movements 35,100

Carbon emissions: not quantified (surely this should be part of an AEE)

I suppose that these figures (or preferably actual figures from the project and operation) could be compared with the figures for installing on-site rainwater storage and greywater recycling, but that’s only part of the picture as the increased water supply (as opposed to demand management, on-site supply and recycling) was also part of the reason that an upgrade of the Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant was required, so some part of that project would have to be included as well…

Waikato River, New Zealand by Alex Cowley

This story first published in:     

The Bitter Oleander: Volume 15, Number 2     

Naming Shadows     

It is the time of night when earthworms stop their blind twisting, their digestion of earth, and lie still. The clouds part and starlight presses down through the fronds of fern trees and into dark soil. Crickets, owls, and frogs pause, absorbing, listening.     

Seven-year-old Tama wakes from a dream in which a lion, a tiger, and a giant dog leap from a cliff. Claws and paws extended, bellies bared, mouths open. Above them the sky was so blue it ceased to be a color and became a mood.     

The dream fills Tama with pride. He knows it is proof of something but he doesn’t know what. He sits on the torn second-hand couch that is his bed, trying to find his way back into the dream. The air is thick with the scent of urine, stale beer, and cigarettes.     

“I am here,” the Something from his dreams says. It comes from the corner where shadows drape over the television and broken vacuum cleaner; the corner where Tama is made to sit for hours, imagining what it would be like to be an ant climbing through the forest of the shag carpet. Sometimes his mother forgets him, and Tama falls asleep, his cheek against the wall. He wakes up to an empty house, but still, he does not move until he is told to.     

“Kia ora,” Tama whispers to the shadow, because it is the polite thing to do and Tama, against the prediction of New Zealand national statistics, is a good boy.     

Tama is afraid but fear has always made him reflexive, full of puppy-dog pounce. Faced with the unknown, he scrambles up boulders and grabs his knees to chest, cannon-balling into deep waters to keep himself from drowning. At the top of the jungle gym he leaps, arms pin-wheeling through the air because it is better than falling.     

And his mother’s violent anger does not make him fold into himself. He does not act out in larger and larger ways against his mother’s demands for him to become smaller and smaller.     

Tama means ‘boy’ in Maori, and that is all he has ever been until the dream. Now Tama thinks he might be something more.     

“Kia Ora!” Tama repeats, his black eyes shining. He says it loudly in case the shadow is dumb. It is loud enough to have woken his mother up and earned him a cuff on the side of the head but his mother is gone. As gone as she can be.     

Tama doesn’t know it, but he can do anything now. Yell. Put his mouth over the milk carton and gulp, gulp, gulp. Eat five slices of bread smothered in butter. There will be no punishment. No more accusations performing circus acts in his mind.     

Tama’s mother has become metal crumpling into concrete. She has tumbled over the edge of the bridge’s guardrail, the right hand turn signal of her car a blinking star on the river’s dark surface.     

But Tama is less alone than he has ever been. Something Else sits in the corner, speaking to him with a voice of sunlight and cricket song.     

“I am,” it says.   

“Pardon?”     

Tama wants to get the name right.     

There is laughter; a low roiling noise that causes the dust motes to stir in their dreaming.       

“I am.”     

Tama thinks the name several times in his mind before speaking it out loud.     

“Hello Eyeam, I’m Tama!”     

“I know.”     

“What?”     

“I know.”     

Tama doesn’t know how to respond so he sits, blinking, his mouth opening and closing. The air is suddenly swarming with the scent of wildflower honey. He remembers honey as a grumbling in his belly. He remembers his finger in a jar and a smack on his hand. His mother yelling, “Its shit now boy, shit! Putting your dirty finger in it! You turned it to shit!”     

He remembers how the jar, yanked from his hands and thrown out the open window, caught the sun in its flight before shattering. It had looked as beautiful as it tasted; a glow on the tongue, a warmth in his toes.     

 Tama sits, swallowing the sweet air, grateful that it is free from insects and slivers of glass. He sits and waits for Eyeam to speak. But the shadows are silent.     

Earth worms began to twist again, to digest, to tunnel. The honey-air dissolves on his tongue. A whining in the distance grows wider, filling with red and blue flashing lights. The shadows thicken in the corner, as the highbeams of the patrol car push through the weary curtains and wash over Tama’s goose-fleshed skin. He is a small brown boy with big eyes waiting on a patchwork raft for the rescue he doesn’t know he needs.     

The police officer knocking on the door is a sound Tama will remember for the rest of his life. Whenever fist hits wood with that same dutiful force the center of his chest will open to an empty hall of dull light. But in that echoing space will also be something else.     

The first police officer with his family-man eyes, smiles a tired smile and asks, “What’s your name, son?”     

Tama will always remember his own voice answering, “My name is Eyeam.”     

He will remember a lion, a tiger, and a giant dog extending their claws and leaping in the sky. It is the night that the shadows gave him their name.

Rick and his friend David did the hike, and were both glad they had borrowed their wives’ hiking poles, because the main ascent is up scree,

 which is no fun even with poles. 

Here’s the nearby Crater Lake:

We had been staying south of Lake Taupo, and the next day we drove up the east side. Taupo is New Zealand’s Great Lake, and although you can easily see across it, the wave action looked a bit like it did on Lake Superior when I saw it many years ago–rough enough that the ducks are sitting it out.

Taupo, the largest lake in the country, is the source of the Waikato (“flowing water” in Maori), the longest river in the country. The river leaves the lake through a narrow, wild chute that nobody could survive;

 the water is so aerated that it won’t hold up a human,

 and plunges so hard that there’s a major undertow at the bottom of the Huka falls.

Nearby is an impressive thermal area,

with geysers,

mudpots,

a pool noted for cleaning jewelry,

and other flows.

It’s privately owned, which surprised us; something like that in the US would be in a national park.

Our last stop was Hamilton, where the Waikato is large enough that crews and Maori canoe teams train on the river. It has a nice river walk, although one wouldn’t want to be there after dark. Bluff oysters, from the southern tip of the South Island (it’s the southern terminus of Highway 1), had just arrived, so we enjoyed them at the Iguana Restaurant (why iguanas? no clue–maybe just to have a theme for decoration). Our waitress noticed that one of us was coming down with a cold, and kindly brought a cup of hot water with honey and lemon.

 The next morning, it was off to Auckland to leave our friends at the airport and drive back to Whangarei and Real Life.

In other news today, the Waikato Times are reporting that 59% of Waikato dairy farmers are not complying with their effluent management rules. For the record, the national average is 15% and both of these rates have increased from last year.

I wonder if anyone else here is old enough to remember fishing and swimming in the Waikato?

The permanent population of about one hundred and sixty thousand.

The earliest recorded settlers in the Hamilton area were Maor. The people called an area on the west bank of the Waikato River Kirikiriroa which is the Maori name for Hamilton today. The area was later renamed Hamilton after Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton, who was killed at the battle of Gate Pa in Tauranga in 1864.

In 1863, the New Zealand Settlement Act enabled land to be taken from Maori by the Crown. This resulted in one million hectares of land being confiscated in the Waikato region, and part of this land provided the basis for European settlement in Hamilton.

Formal European settlement was established on 24 August 1864, when Captain William Steele came off the gunboat and established the first Memorial Park.

A military outpost was set up. The Borough of Hamilton was established in 1877.

Vibrant, diverse and thriving Hamilton combines all the vigour and energy of a bustling city with a relaxed, easy lifestyle.

A melting pot of more than eight ethnic groups, the cities cosmopolitan flavour is accentuated by its multi cultural mix of cafes, pubs and restaurants that contribute to an exciting night life.

Hamilton is a great place to live. A safe environment with low crime rates where people are able to enjoy participating in their communities. A recent resident survey reflects that with more than eighty percent of residents saying they feel safe in their neighbourhoods.

It is home to the biggest agricultural trade show in the southern hemisphere, namely the Field days. Other tourist activities include the beautiful Hamilton Gardens.

The major attraction of Hamilton is its extensive garden complex that covers an area of fifty eight hectares and features a number of themed gardens, it is certainly not your average botanic garden experience.

The town is famous for its themed gardens, and the local zoo, which has the largest free flight aviary in the Southern Hemisphere an excellent chance to find out about distinctive native birds.

The southern end of Hamiltons Main Street offers an excellent choice of restaurants, cafes and bars.

If you feel like exploring and relaxing simultaneously a cruise down the Waikato River in style aboard the MV Waipa Delta is also worth considering. Offering morning and afternoon teas, buffet lunches and dinner and cocktails, this is sightseeing in style.

Arts and culture offers visitors and residents a chance to experience the cities unique identity. A theatre performance at the Meteor can demystify an unfamiliar culture. A visit to Te Winika at the museum can ground us in the familiar, and the visual arts, contemporary and traditional can mirror both.

The water was declared safe by WHO standards, however councillor Joel Cayford, who is now employed by ARC said that it was unsafe. I attended the public meeting where he explained that WHO standards listed a number of quality requirements, but excluded many ingredients such as dioxins, heavy metals, fertiliser and more. In my opinion the meeting wasn’t helped by constant interjections from rent a protester, which didn’t help the cause.

Not long after approval was given by the regional mayors, including the Mayor Bob Harvey of Waitakere who approved it on the condition that Waitakere water would only come from local dams in the rainforest, thus not having to take this water.

What has this got to do with dead zones in the ocean? Well here’s the thing. A lot of the objections against using Waikato river water were because it contains huge amounts of leached chemicals from farms including fertiliser, antibiotics and much more. It appears that these same types of chemicals are flowing from rivers around the world into the sea and several studies are suggesting that the rise in industrial food production is increasing the number of dead zones rapidly.

Oceanic dead zones are areas where the oxygen levels in the water are so low that they kill of almost all forms of marine life. There are now more than 400 oceanic dead zones around the world and they are growing fast.

According to experts, including NASA a major contributor to these dead zones is fertiliser that flows to the ocean from farms both in the form of chemicals leaching from farms and from the animal manure which still contains these chemicals. The nitrogen and phosphorous feeds the algae and phytoplankton, making these plants grow rapidly.

In New Zealand, we have become aware of algal bloom. This is occurring more commonly now both in coastal waters, such as our local Waiheke Island, and also in freshwater lakes, including many in the Waikato, where 10% of our drinking water is coming from.

So what does this mean? We know that fresh water is going to be on of the important issues in the future, both from climate change and from man-made intervention. We know that our oceans are becoming polluted, much of it from man-made waste. We know that the fish stocks are becoming depleted in many parts of the world, due to over fishing, to feed growing nations. But fish are also now seriously at risk from the oceanic dead zones, where oxygen levels are so low that fish and other marine life can’t survive.

We seem to be in danger of creating the ‘unrealistic and unbelievable’ wasted planet that is often depicted on science fiction movies.Am I exaggerating? Well check these examples out:

A dead zone the size of New Jersey of the coast of Oregon and Washington, may be irreversible.

The Mississippi Delta dead zone is one of the smaller ones in the world, only 3,000 square miles. The US Government is investing $320 million to try to slow it down, but as long as the chemicals keep flowing down and farm production is increased, we have a problem.

The Baltic sea apparently contains 7 of the 10 worst oceanic dead zones and it appears that the surrounding countries haven’t been doing much about them. The end result could be the loss of almost all marine life in the area. This map shows how bad it is in places, where the red areas represent areas where the water essentially contains no oxygen.

It appears that the man-made damage to the oceans and lakes in the world could present an even greater problem than global warming and of course one that is compounded by it. If so much water ends up unable to sustain life, how will we survive, especially the poorer areas on the planet, where water is already scarce. The sea’s health is not something we can take for granted, no matter how vast it appears. The attractive colours of algae bloom that we sea coming back each summer in bigger areas, is evidence that we need to change some of our ways, and quickly.

I’ll leave the last word to Joanne from Rocketboom who explains it far more succinctly than I:

Introducing ‘Peak Water’ and ‘Water Miles’

by Craig Brown – Waiheke Island, New Zealand

As with energy, there are few parts of the world that could claim to be using their water resources sustainably. I wish to introduce two concepts to help explain why we cannot continue to use water in the way that we do today (that’s what unsustainable means in its purest form – something that we can’t continue to do). The issues can seem very large and the solutions may appear impossible or large-scale, but I hope to demonstrate that, in fact, the required responses are small-scale, but multiple.

The two concepts I want to introduce are undoubtedly not original, although I did think of them myself: Peak Water and Water Miles. I say not original as a quick google search shows that people are already talking about Peak Water. Although I can’t find any discussion about Water Miles, someone has reserved the website www.watermiles.com. I personally have reserved www.peakwater.org.nz and www.watermiles.org.nz and I hope to have something on these sites (with a New Zealand focus) in time for the publication of this article.

What is Peak Water?

Peak Water is based on the concept of Peak Oil, which is understood to be the time when the maximum production of oil has been reached and volumes will decline thereafter. If all the earth’s remaining oil was as easily accessible as that which we have already used, or are using now, this would not happen for some time. However, most of the world’s remaining oil reserves are so inaccessible that to extract them would be very expensive (costing far more than it could be sold for today) and in some cases environmentally damaging.

It is likely that we’ve just nearly reached the peak of oil production and therefore oil prices will head ever upwards as demand exceeds supply and acquisition becomes more expensive. This may not be a bad thing as the current level of use has been a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and we need to reduce these to avert catastrophic climate change. However, unless demand is reduced or cleaner energy supplies are found, there is likely to be a movement towards even dirtier sources of energy initially. Sometimes Peak Oil is referred to as Post-Cheap-Oil.

Peak Water is similar in that in many places in the world the easily accessible water is being used to full capacity, or indeed beyond full capacity. The High Plains region of the United States is one of those places, which produces a very significant part of the nation’s food crops by irrigating the semi-arid landscape with water from the Ogallala Aquifer. Unfortunately the aquifer recharges very slowly and depletion rates have been measured to be up to 100 times faster than recharge (figures vary widely but none have recharge even close to depletion rates). The population of this area depends on the aquifer for its drinking water and for its economic prosperity.

The US department of Agriculture estimates that 16% of cropland in the US is irrigated, largely in the Western United States[1]. That acreage grows more than half the value of all US crops. Without irrigation food production would dwindle. Already there are farms that can no longer access the aquifer[2] and others that are drilling deeper wells and using more power to bring the water to the surface with pumps. This pattern has been seen in many other places, such as India, where there are booms in groundwater use, followed by busts where entire regions experience crisis as the water runs out.[3] In other locations rivers[4], lakes[5] and even whole seas[6] have dried up as demand for irrigation, industry and domestic supply have exceeded the capacity of the resource.

Like oil, water can be obtained from more expensive and/or dirtier sources, such as a new dam, a pipeline from a more water-rich location (like Alaska or Canada) or by processes such as seawater desalination. One must consider not only the financial cost of these projects, which is substantial, but also the environmental costs on the source location and the energy costs of the pumping or extraction.

Finally, projects like this simply delay the inevitable; the time when there are no more water sources for exploitation and the world goes thirsty – and hungry. ‘Think big’ solutions frequently transfer the burden to other resources; there are no easy answers.

What are Water Miles?

Simply put, Food Miles are a measure of the environmental cost of a food item, which is often related to the distance it has travelled from the source to the consumer but also encompasses the overall environmental impact of its production and transport, including production costs such as feed, fertiliser and pesticides as well as distribution method and distance (including the consumer’s journey). It is usually expressed as a carbon emission. It could also include an assessment of other environmental impacts (such as eutrophication of lakes due to high fertiliser use or stock effluent run-off).

We need a sister concept of Water Miles, which relates to the energy expended or carbon emitted in the sourcing (dams, pipelines, pumping), treatment (chemicals, energy) and distribution (pumping) of water. This concept should extend to wastewater, which has to be collected (pumping), treated (chemicals, energy) and disposed of (pumping). It could also include an assessment of other environmental impacts (untreated or poorly treated effluent entering the harbours, the embodied energy of concrete pipes, plants and dams, etc.).

For example, in New Zealand a percentage of the Waikato River is now diverted to Auckland, the largest city, to meet the water demands. This was a massive project involving a huge number of heavy truck movements, tonnes of concrete and significant ongoing electrical pumping costs. In the Assessment of Environmental Effects (a statutory process) for that project there was no calculation (nor even a mention) of the carbon emissions arising from the construction nor from the operation. In Auckland, this contributes to the fact that the percentage of each council’s greenhouse gas emissions that  result from water and wastewater operations, compared to vehicles, buildings and other sources, is much higher than the national average; between 35 and 40%[7]^&[8], compared with a national average of 24%.[9]

The project is expected to guarantee supplies until 2050 and it was stated that the alternative options considered would have significant environmental costs or were otherwise unsuitable. It was also stated that water conservation was not expected to be able to yield substantial benefits. This begs the question: what is the plan for Auckland after 2050? Further, would consideration of the Water Miles and Peak Water concepts by key stakeholders have led to a more serious consideration of ‘demand management’ solutions?

Big Problem – Small Solution

As discussed, we tend to find water and energy use linked quite closely and we have an existing crisis with both. They may interact in unpredictable ways in the future, but we can expect climate change to bring rainfall that falls in less manageable ways, with large volumes of water landing over short periods, which we cannot capture to recharge surface and groundwater. It may also erode the soil since we have destroyed many of the forest and wetland environments which can perform the task of slowing the pace of the water and retaining that soil. There will also be longer periods of no rainfall and higher rates of evaporation from the soil.

This undoubtedly adds up to a big problem. But does it call for a big solution? I would argue that there is no big solution. Doing anything on a large scale leads to large-scale consequences. If a large supply is over-exploited it needs another large supply from elsewhere to replace it. If a large sewage plant malfunctions or demand overtakes its capacity then serious pollution can result. If desalination of seawater is to be used in a significant way then massive amounts of power will be required – requiring new generation and resulting in higher emissions. And as I’ve said, any fixes of this nature are not addressing the underlying issue of demand exceeding sustainable supply.

No, the solution is small, indeed, the solution is not to do anything much at all, but rather to do – or use – less. We need to reduce our water consumption by fitting economical showerheads, low-flush (or composting) toilets and perhaps using communal, rather than private, swimming pools.

Farmers need to grow crops that are more suited to their environment rather than creating a false environment through use of massive irrigation schemes. Irrigation that is used needs to become more efficient; dripper lines under the ground for example. Systems that encourage farmers to do this need to be developed, including consumer education and purchasing power.

In addition to this, we need to think local on supply and disposal. Very local. In fact, ‘on-site’. We can’t rely on always being supplied with sufficient, cheap water for our current or even our reduced needs. We need to provide as much as we can for ourselves. One way of doing this is to capture rainwater from the roof in a tank. It can be surprisingly clean without any filters and devices, but with some simple technology it can match or exceed the quality of the municipal supply in many areas. It is possible to live off just rainwater in areas with sufficient rainfall and with a large enough tank (I do on Waiheke Island in New Zealand). However, another option is to use the treated town water only for drinking and bathing and the rainwater for other uses, such as clothes washing.

Another option – and one in which I must declare my professional interest – is the reuse of greywater. The more easily reused greywater comes from the bath, shower and washing machine. It amounts to about 70% of the wastewater produced in an average household and is the ‘cleanest’ portion. Dishwashers, sinks and indeed toilets produce lower volumes of water that are less pure. Replacing an existing use of freshwater with recycled greywater can therefore save around 70% of water use.

I favour on-site greywater reuse over wide-scale sewage reuse as the treatment process is much less energy intensive and is able to be performed locally, within each dwelling, avoiding the need to install large-scale infrastructure and to pump the water back and forth. Sub-surface irrigation and toilet flushing with recycled greywater are low-risk activities that do not require expensive systems to achieve. We have been manufacturing a relatively inexpensive system in New Zealand for 15 years that can be run from a small DC solar power system. We are happy that the water produced is fit for the purposes suggested.

I also favour on-site wastewater disposal, where nutrients and water are returned to the land in manageable quantities. If a failure occurs to an on-site system then the outcome is usually just a smelly, boggy garden. If a failure occurs in a sewage treatment plant then the outcome is often a wide-scale release of sewage into waterways. In the last reported year in Auckland 1.8 million cubic metres of sewage was released untreated into the waterways due to malfunctions or outdated infrastructure[10].

One of the problems faced by proponents of local, on-site solutions is that health authorities often deny people the ability to legally use greywater and rainwater (and indeed composting toilets or on-site wastewater treatment systems) based on calculations of tiny potential risks, but force them to use the reticulated system which has known actual risks and, as I’ve argued, is unsustainable due to the higher energy and water demands.

Perhaps the biggest problem however in moving away from the ‘big pipes in, big pipes out’ mentality is that to avoid the next crisis in supply, demand management solutions need to be implemented from now and over a sustained period of time for them to have any impact, but public policy often suffers from inertia as there is no immediate compelling need to save water. By contrast, a new major supply project can come on-stream in a few years. Such investment usually follows a ‘surprise’ water shortage and the time imperative means that again, demand management is overlooked. Concepts like Peak Water and Water Miles if they take hold in the public imagination, like Peak Oil and Food Miles, could offer one way of beginning to influence policy.

Craig Brown is the Business Development Manager of ECOplus, which manufactures a New Zealand designed greywater recycling unit <craig@greywater.co.nz>, www.ecoplus.co.nz. He is moving into sustainability teaching and consulting from his background in Ergonomics and has plans to build a straw-bale house soon.

[2] Egan, D. and Bergquist, L. (2003) Great Lakes Tempt a Thirsty Nation. Retrieved 15 March, 2007, from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=190702

[3] International Water Management Institute (2007) The Socio-Ecology of Groundwater in India. Retrieved 13 March, 2007, from http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/home/socio-ecology_groundwater.htm.

[4] The Great Ruaha River (2005). Retrieved 13 March, 2007, from http://www.friendsofruaha.org/ruaha_river.html

[5] United Nations Environment Programme (2002) The Disappearance of Lake Chad in Africa. Retrieved 13 March, 2007, from http://www.grida.no/climate/vitalafrica/english/14.htm.

[6] Paul Welsh (2000) The Aral Sea tragedy. Retrieved 13 March, 2007, from the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/678898.stm

[7] Waitakere City Council (2005) City Development Committee Meeting Agenda, 8 December 2005. Retrieved 28 November, 2006, from http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/abtcnl/ct/pdf/citydvlpmt2005/081205ag.pdf

[8] International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Australia / New Zealand (2006) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis: Milestone one report. Retrieved 12 November, 2006, from Rodney District Council website: http://www.rodney.govt.nz/council/2006minutes/September/CEA2109_Item9_Appendix1.pdf

[9] International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Australia/New Zealand (2006) Communities for Climate Protection – New Zealand: Inventory Report 2006. Retrieved 14 March, 2007, from ICLEA website: http://www.iclei.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/ANZ/CCP/CCP-NZ/Measures/CCP-NZ_InventoryReport2006.pdf

[10] Finucane, L. (Ed.) (2005) Auckland Water Industry: Annual performance review 2004/2005. Retrieved 14 March, 2007, from WaterCare Services Ltd website: http://www.watercare.co.nz/assets/Publications/AWI06Final.pdf

Held at Taupo’s Spa Park on the 13th September this unique, exhilarating relay is a “not to be missed” event on the mountain-biking calendar.

Individuals or teams of two/three or four/five compete over an exciting 8km course for 12 hours between 10.30am and 10.30pm or 6 hours between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

Introduced for the first time last year and continued for 2008 is the Hell Pizza Little Devils Ride, a non-competitive 7km ride for kids starting at 9.15am and riding one lap of the Day Night track through tent city to the finish line. Supervised by experience mountain bikers this is an amazing experience for Little Devils aged between 8 and 13 years of age.

Both the 12 hour and 6 hour events are held on the same course that is designed to suit riders of all ability levels. The track includes fast open parkland, awesome downhills, challenging single tracks, pine needle covered forest tracks and spectacular scenery alongside the mighty Waikato River.

Competition, for all grades will be as hot as ever with a great selection of spot prizes up for grabs.

There is as much action off the track as on it as Spa Park is transformed into a magical “tent-city” where over 3000 mountain bikers and their support crews all set up camp. They remain at the venue for the duration of the action that always provides hilarity, challenges, sweat, toil and above all – a level of enjoyment second to none.

Make sure you are part of the action; join the excitement, the thrills and the buzz of the Jamis Day Night Thriller.

Entry forms are available now from cycle shops, fitness centres or from the Event Promotions website http://www.eventpromotions.co.nz.

I have found one video of the event which, as the maker – swillson1971 – readily admits at the end of the clip, is a very bad video – well tough. But what intrigues me is that this should be the largest mountain bike fest in the world – if the video is anything to go by it does not seem like ‘the’ place to be for the excitement factor – so that leads to ‘what are these Kiwis on?’ – other than their bikes!!