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Auckland Council has taken samples from Te Arai Stream for a toxicity analysis following the death of dozens of native longfin eels.
An investigation was opened by Council’s compliance monitoring team at the request of Vince Moores from the Lake Road Residents’ Society.
Council is investigating the possibility that the deaths were caused by the draining of a pond at a nearby quarry.
The quarry was recently ordered by the Environment Court to cease or significantly reduce its operations.
Council told Mahurangi Matters that it would take an ecologist up to 10 days to analyse the results of the test.
A controversial dam and crossing on the river was also demolished on the same week that the event occurred.
This, combined with heavy rain, may have caused an increased amount of sedimentation in the water.
Save Te Arai chair Aaron McConchie says he doubts the eels could have died of natural causes.
“If it had just been eels it may have been caused by sedimentation from heavy rainfall, but because fish have also died it is a major concern,” he says.
