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A local environmental group devoted to restoring the health of the Matakana and Glen Eden river catchments is pushing for better monitoring of where sediment is coming from.
Friends of Awa Matakanakana (FOAM) told this month’s Rodney Local Board meeting that Auckland Council was currently not surveying any rivers in the north-east of the region.
Founder member John Collins said in a deputation that FOAM was keen to get Board support, as the group knew it had a strong environmental commitment.
“The problem is there is no information on the sites that actually need to be addressed across the catchments,” he said. “In the Matakana catchment, no data has been gathered to guide the necessary interventions to achieve your outcomes.”
And another FOAM founder, Martin Evans, said Council’s research centre, RIMU, was hardly addressing the sediment that was going into the Hauraki Gulf at all.
He said there were 493 square kilometres of catchment areas monitored for sediment on the west coast, north of Auckland city, but just 14 sq km on the east coast.
“Here in the north-east, we have the second highest rainfall intensity catchment in Auckland, after the Waitakeres, with up to 1450mm per annum. But nobody is looking at sediment going into the Hauraki Gulf,” he said.
“We have been asking RIMU why and haven’t managed to get a satisfactory answer yet.”
Evans said more than 170 sq km of major east coast river catchments leading into the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park were missing from Auckland’s State of the Environment sediment reporting.
“We’re trying to get the Matakana and Glen Eden rivers included in the monitoring system. With that assessment, we can find hotspots for sediment runoff.”
Board members heard that FOAM took a holistic approach to catchment management, and strongly believed that sediment issues often started high upstream, which was why increased monitoring was needed.
FOAM had been hoping to get $3 million from the Government’s Freshwater Improvement Fund with an Auckland Council-led application for a long-term plan to assess and manage water quality and sediment loss from both rivers into the Sandspit estuary. However, although it was shortlisted, the application just missed out in the final round, the Board heard.
Evans said FOAM wanted the Local Board to write to Council for a watercourse assessment in Matakana and Glen Eden to be budgeted in 2022-23, and for Council to fund RIMU to include the Matakana and Glen Eden Rivers in its regular sediment monitoring.
The group also wanted Rodney’s Healthy Harbours Fund acceptance criteria to be broadened to include waterway assessment and the establishment of landowner groups, and for forestry ambassadors to cover the Matakana and Glen Eden River catchments in their workplans.
