by Russel Norman
Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora is apparently the fourth largest lake in our country. And it has the consistency of pea soup; toxic pea soup to be precise. I visited there last Friday.
Prue lent us a couple of kayaks, so myself and Monique from Radio NZ headed out into the soup. To keep us safe Jolyon came along, as he knows a lot about kayaking. It was really beautiful out there. There was bugger all wind and it was sunny.
There were signs by the boatramp that said not to touch the water, as it’s a health hazard due to toxic algae. That made us extra careful not to fall in. Monique and I did manage to splash ourselves while Jolyon avoided all contact, showing what a pro he is.
Currently the Canterbury Regional Council says that groundwater levels in the Central Plains are at an all time low, and flows in the Selwyn and other rivers such as the Irwell and the Boggy that feed the lake are at minimum or lower. Irrigation is sucking the rivers and groundwater dry. This, combined with big inflows of nutrients and warm weather, has led to the toxic algal blooms.
We paddled out for half an hour across the lake. While it was nice to be on the water, there wasn’t a lot happening. Our paddles disappeared beneath the pea soup with each stroke. Monique bravely carried on an interview until we had enough tape and then we could all concentrate on not falling into the toxic soup. Then we paddled back to the boat ramp.
Some old guys came back from spearing flounder from their tinny. They did ok but they said that the fish seemed to be getting smaller. There is still a lot of life in the lake – birds and eels in particular, in fact the shore crew had watched a shag swallowing an eel – but it is an ecosystem under immense stress. If Central Plains Water goes ahead then the nutrients from that giant irrigation scheme will end up in the lake.
After we paddled the lake we headed up to Dunsandel, in the same catchment, where the town’s water supply has been polluted by E.coli from ruminant animals, presumably dairy cows considering that the town is surrounded by intensive dairying and one of the dairy corporations has cows all around the town well.
The people of Dunsandel are going to have to pay extra rates so that they can install a UV treatment plant to kill the E.coli in their previously pure drinking water. So they’ll still drink cow shit, but they can now pay to drink sterilised cow shit, while the dairy corporations make a tidy return – private profit, public cost. Thank you to the Labour government that let this all happen.
Christchurch had better get ready. If John Key gets his way with irrigation schemes then Christchurch can pay for the privilege of drinking sterilised cow shit too. If it helps, think of it as getting your food and drink requirements at the same time. But if that still doesn’t appeal, then you better get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight.
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Featured by Russel Norman on Thu, March 11th, 2010
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
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While I agree the lake is in poor health there are some practical although large scale steps that need to be taken in the lake.
The pea soup effect is due to the low lake level. The wind is able to cause wave action that reaches the base of the lake and stirs up sediment. The lake needs to be managed at a more steady and deeper level. This can only be done by better management and control of lake openings (how about a permanent outlet structure). The marginal farmland for which the lake is held so low needs to be got rid of and returned to the lake.
The nutrient load is a problem but cannot be tackled at source without adverse political reaction. Some market driven force like the cost of fertilizer might help. Central Plains irrigation could actually help the lake by increasing the volume of water flowing into it. This could be done through augmentation of the Selwyn etc etc…
SO Russell…what are the Greens going to DO about it???????
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waterboy – “Central Plains irrigation could actually help the lake by increasing the volume of water flowing into it” perhaps .. though it’s just as likely that the increased nutrient load that would accompany the greater water volume into the lake would cause more trouble still.
I thought this point you made,
“The nutrient load is a problem but cannot be tackled at source without adverse political reaction.” was right on the button.
What to do about that?
When you know, tell Russel.
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Russel – you never made it clear is the “toxic pea soup” is solely man-made, or a natural algal bloom, or a combination of the two (or a result from the output of very large numbers of canada geese)
Elersmere is an unusual lake – very big, very shallow, and often completely cut off from the ocean by natural sand bars – so you’d think it would be a prime place for algal blooms.
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photonz1 said: “Russel – you never made it clear..”
Asking a bit much of Russel there, Photonz1.
It’s a hell of a big job for one man and as he says, a hell of a dirty lake.
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photonz1 wrote:
“Elersmere is an unusual lake – very big, very shallow, and often completely cut off from the ocean by natural sand bars”
whereas ordinary lakes like Te Anau, Taupo and Wanaka are seldom cut off from the ocean?
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kahikatea,
I think that the point that photonz1 was making is that is is a very large and shallow lake with limited water intake (and hence limited outlet or water flow) hence the stagnant nature of the lake.
Those other lakes have a far larger catchment area.
Lake Taupo is so big and deep that if all water flow was prevented from entering the lake, it would take 17 years for it to empty at current outlet levels (theoretically as the outlet would need to be at the bottom – but you get my drift)
With natural river course changes there will always be left over lakes that eventually will dry up. Lake Ellesmere may be no different. Reverting to swamp in the future, then to bog and peat and onto grassland and forest.
The Waikato River has also left numerous lakes around Huntly and Te Kauwhata when it changed course from a Hauraki estuary exit at Thames to the current Port Waikato one.
Even in the last 15 years it has carved a huge chunck of the sandspit at Port Waikato to form a new channel and leaving the old on to silt up and revert back to a sand bank.
I think it is important to differentiate between what is a healthy lake (Taupo say) and a dying one like Lake Ellesmere.
Nature has a way of changing things and while us dominant humans may help it along, sometimes we cannot change the inevitable such as Laka Ellesmere becoming a swamp.
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kahikatea – the Lakes you mention have very large outflows – all of them enough to run major hydro schemes.
Ellesmere has no river – it discharges directly into the ocean (or doesn’t as the case may be)
My understanding is that from time to time Ellesmere has NO outflow at all and effectively becomes stagnant for periods, before further wave action opens tha bar again.
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I think a bulldozer opens the gap. There is a northward flowing current piling up stones. The stones on Birdlings flat are like a discis.
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cool. a bulldozer-based ecosystem.
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kahikatea,
If the Lake Ellesmere is a dying eco system, how much effort should go into protecting it?
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Gerrit wrote:
“kahikatea,
If the Lake Ellesmere is a dying eco system, how much effort should go into protecting it?”
well, obviously it should have kahikatea growing on its banks. But other than that, why are you asking me in particular?
I don’t know much about lake Ellesmere, other than that it seems to be some sort of intermediate form between a lake and a very large puddle.
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Some notes… (I once was involved in a large study of a similar ecosystem elsewhen in the world)
* The murky colour is definitely due to shallow lake and wind churn. The main river flowing into it is usually clear.
* Careful near the sea entrance, last time I was there (some months ago) they had dredged a channel open and the flow ripping through was deadly fast.
* What is natural and what is best for ecosystems is a tricky question in a lake like that. Naturally in dry times the channel would block and there would be no connection to the sea for months. However to function best as a nursery area it would need to be open at the right time of year (for whatever that may be).
* The management of the channel currently probably has more to do with lake level and value of adjacent land to man.
* The vitality of such a system is extremely complex with nutrients, available oxygen, available sunlight, salinity and species diversity all playing a huge role. I hope you are taking a professional ecologist with you!
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From what I’ve heard about Lake Ellesmere, is that Wahine churned it up to make it primarily what it is today.. but I’m sure that the nearby farming has exacerberated this. Increased Nitrogen run-off leads to an increase in algal blooms as this is one of their main growth requirements, hence the toxicity of Ellesmere.
and I don’t know about a permanent opening structure as it is dredged often, but builds up due to longshore drift of sediments, mainly via southerly currents.
oh and Richard Dawkins is amazing.
Just thought I’d add that.
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Kahikatea’s description,
a bulldozer-based ecosystem
serves for almost all of Aotearoa.
Perhaps the world…
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Yes the wahine storm made a significant difference as the seagrass got ripped up and released lots of sediment which gets continually churned as the water level is low. So increasing the level would help, cutting nutrient inflow would help, and cutting off sediment inflow would help. There hav also been attempts to reestablish the grass but without much luck yet.
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Fonterra forced to act to regulate pigs involved in dairy farming
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/3470815/Dairy-farms-getting-dirtier
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Fonterra claimed their Clean Streams Accord, being voluntary, would suit farmers, (who loathed compulsion, wee independent-minded souls) and would result in …clean streams. It hasn’t and the rate of voluntary compliance has fallen. The Minister of Agriculture says it’s a ‘totally unacceptable story’. Sure is. Now Fonterra are toughening up, and say they will inspect each of their farm annually, to ensure compliance. Sounds quite compulsary to me. Also sounds quite ineffective, that ‘once a year visit’. The threat by Fonterra, to refuse to take milk from ‘dirty farmers’ who continued to be-foul the environment turned out to be a lie. It never happened. This latest ‘promise’ to crack down on their farmers is pure spun bullsh*t as well, but it will see them through another 5 years without causing them any anguish.
meanwhile, the rivers continue their decline.
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“Fonterra forced to act to regulate pigs involved in dairy farming”
nothing to do with pigs. I read it, and it’s all about bl**dy humans.
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So what’s need is an accreditation system (‘fail’/ bronze,silver,gold maybe) that MUST be displayed at the farm gate. Gold producers milk is collected, processed and marketed separately and at a premium.
‘Fails’ would be given a short period to comply before the tanker no longer turns into their driveway.
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kahikatea
When even David Carter is talking about the possible need for regulation of dairy farmers – they are being seen as pigs.
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“even David Carter is talking about the possible need for regulation of dairy farmers”
And it still won’t happen. Not while Key needs the Federation.
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samiam – your gold/silver/bronze system would work a charm – if it was managed by people living downstream from the farms. Fonterra will not do this. Talk about it, perhaps, but not do it.
Headline: Townspeople block milk tanker at gate of ‘dirty’ dairy farm
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I was also interested to read that Southland had an increase in compliancy (big cheer) but looking at the figures more closely revealed a different story. While the percentage had improved the rapid increase in dairy farms in the province meant that the number of farms not complying had actually gone up. One step forward, two back!
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That’s right sprout – there are no new rivers in Southland, just more dairy cows and more cow sh*t in those rivers.
The Aparima River was ranked ‘red’ yesterday – ‘significant health risk’.
The Aparima river flows from the tapu mauka Takitima, through farmland and down to the coast.
Shame.
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When there is an oil spill a dedicated team move in and deal with the clean up. Why not have the same system and charge the farmer for the full costs. Wringing hands, fining and threatening to have the tanker drive past doesn’t address the immediate problem.
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As they do with fires, set by farmers, that spread into D.o.C land.
Yes.
With lots of media coverage.
But that won’t happen.
Those who hold ‘the economy’ as the holy grail just do not believe that ‘the environment’ is intrinsically worthy. The damage they see being done, despite noises they might make, does not matter to them, unless their production is threatened.
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We’ve got Russel continuing his Dirty River Tour on the Mataura next weekend. We have managed to get kayakers, fishermen, local environmentalists and iwi involved. I’m hoping to get strong media coverage as this is now a topical story, we may even get a little leverage for “Dairy Disaster Response Teams”.
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Watch out for lamprey, Russel (call them kanakana, get in with the runaka that harvests them from below the Mataura falls).
There will be letters to the editor to ease your passage.
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As a former regional councillor, I know how difficult it is to persuade farmers to change their practices! I know I’ll be shot down in flames, because they maintain that they all look after the environment in the best possible way, most of them do, but Lake Ellesmere is a prime example of environmental neglect. I do acknowledge that a lot of the problems are do to the nature of the lake, but faecal run-off from farms is a major cause of the algal bloom, which could be significantly reduced by more sensitive farming practices.
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