Bulletin Board

Chairman's Report to save the Wairau River Inc's fourth AGM: June 2009

It is my pleasure to report to the Society that another year has passed in which we have slowly, but surely, been gathering our strength for the immediate battle ahead. Our appeal against Marlborough District Council's decision to allow TrustPower's application to divert the Wairau River, will be heard at the Environment Court, which will sit in Blenheim in November of this year.

We hear that the Council have put aside a five or six figure sum of ratepayers' money, to counter our Society's appeal and the appeals of other parties, against their grant to TrustPower of the right to divert our river. Allied to this sum, TrustPower's own, far higher budget for the defence of their consent, will present a formidable obstacle for us to overcome. Despite the good news that follows, none of our members has cause for complacency, or a belief that "she'll be right" on the day. We all need to continue and indeed, increase our efforts.

Your Committee believes it will require something more than $100,000 to counter TrustPower's claim on the River. Along with our own routine, fund-raising efforts and with the contribution of membership fees and many individual donations, we have been very fortunate in having also received several, substantial, four and five figure donations from concerned citizens.

Thanks to this generosity, our fundraising is running very much on target. We are confident that, with all of our members' continued support, we will be in a position to put forward the strongest case possible, when we get to the Environment Court. Along with the other appellants, we will win this crucial battle.

To this end, we have been very fortunate in securing the enthusiastic and dedicated services of local firm, Hardy-Jones Clark, as our legal counsel. At the best of times, expert witnesses do not come cheap. Probably the greatest bank of expertise on the hydrology and related areas applicable to the Wairau and its environment, is held within the Council. It is therefore denied us. Similarly, many of the experts we approach, have to balance the consideration of their fees for appearing on our behalf, against the risk of earning the future displeasure of the power-generating companies, which are a major source of consultant employment in their specialised fields. Despite this significant obstacle, with the help of Hardy-Jones Clark, we have been able to retain a most impressive body of expert witnesses to advance our case in Court.

We are also attempting within a budget, limited only by our ability to raise funds over and above what we deem necessary for the Environmental Court, to raise public awareness of just what is at stake. It will greatly help our case at the Environment Court, if it is apparent to all concerned that this risky and foolhardy project is opposed by a significant majority of the thoughtful people of Marlborough. I would urge you to immediately start lobbying your councillors and any other leaders and opinion formers in the Province to become active on our behalf.

It would be impossible for me to mention by name all the many people and organisations, who have made huge individual contributions to our cause, both in time and in generous donations. I would however, particularly like to mention those many people up the Wairau Valley who have been fighting this cause alongside us. There is a far greater proportion of their community working in our support than TrustPower would have us believe.

Your Committee has worked extremely hard during this past year. This is particularly true of the sub-committee working on the preparation of the legal case, who have dedicated many days to the cause. I would also like to particularly give thanks to our Vice-Chairman, Ron Tannock who has acted in my stead for most of the year, while I have been far more heavily committed to looking after my business affairs than I would have liked.

I hope that at the next AGM, I will be able to report a famous victory and we will then, with the immediate threat removed, be able to settle down to the serious work of ensuring the preservation of our river and its eco-system for the future generations to come.

Hugh Steadman

Why the TrustPower proposal to divert the Wairau should not go ahead

• Seismic and flood events. The proposed trench is to run for more than forty-five kilometers along the steep hillsides on the southern side of the Wairau valley. The trench crosses the highly active Alpine fault-line at at least eleven points. Each kilometer of trench will contain 115,000 tonnes of water. In the face of all potential hazards of earthquake and flood, how can TrustPower guarantee the safety of those living or travelling beneath this potential man-made tsunami? If this construct fails, it will not be the first such to fail in New Zealand - but it will be the most damaging.
• Dust. Over time, the trench and its associated holding ponds will silt up. At times of flood, TrustPower proposes to flush this sediment into the main river below. For most of the year, when the river is not in flood and the majority of its flow is being diverted into the trench, the braids of the main river will be dry. Tonnes of dried silt will be exposed to the north-westerly gales for which Marlborough is well-known. Unprecedented dust-storms are to be anticipated to the detriment of the health and amenity of all the residents downstream from the project.
• Recreation. The river is a significant recreational amenity for the people of Marlborough and for visiting tourists. Jet-boating, kayaking, swimming, bird-watching, picnicking and trout fishing are all enjoyed activities. A braided river is particularly rich in food for birds and fish. A shallow river, reduced to a single stream in places for much of the year, will be detrimental to all these activities.
• Endangered Species. There are three native bird species and one species of native fish endangered by this scheme. The most at risk is the Black Fronted Tern that has nesting colonies at only three sites in New Zealand. It nests on the islands between the braids of the river, where it is relatively safe from predators. It will not require many errors in the proposed predator control programme, to render this bird extinct in Marlborough. If power companies are freed to destroy such braided river habitats with impunity, it will not be long before the Tern's other nesting sites, outside Marlborough, also fall victim.
• Water table. The water table on properties below the trench will be isolated from the usual inflows of rainfall on the southern hills. Their water table will simultaneously be affected by the planned fall in the level of the Wairau. The experts cannot agree in their guesses as to how severe this affect is going to be. What is known, is that at a level only a couple of metres below the current table, from which some residents draw their water, there lies a natural layer of arsenic contaminated water.
• Pollution. The kilometers of waterways and holding ponds associated with the six-power-station project will be affected by weed and, almost certainly, by didymo. These invasions will be remedied by treatment with herbicides and fungicides. It is inevitable that residues from these successive treatments will transfer into the aquifer on which the town of Blenheim depends. Given this pollution, the option to irrigate organic certified crops on the Wairau plain, may well be lost. No matter how small the dosage, who can be confident that the long term prophylactic treatment with herbicides and fungicides of those drawing their drinking water from the polluted aquifer, will be without adverse health effects?
• Landscape. The world's wild places are under increasing pressure. Even in New Zealand, those who relish escape to the natural world, have to travel ever further to find it. The Wairau River, within easy reach of Marlborough's major centre of population, retains its natural landscape values. TrustPower's scheme is a proposal to "tastefully" industrialise a half of it.
• Climate change. The phenomenon of rapid climate change is now universally accepted. What is not agreed upon is the extent and nature of the consequences over the proposed lifespan of the TrustPower project. What is certain is that today's average climatic conditions will not be the same as those prevailing in fifty years time. These changes will affect the Wairau River and any projects for its economic exploitation. A submission was made to the initial hearing on TrustPower's proposal that, before any ruling should be given, a full investigation be made into the possible consequences of climate change in regards into the Wairau and its catchment. This submission was ignored by the Hearing Commissioners and their subsequent report made no mention of climate change. This greatly adds to the uncertainties involved. For instance the Commissioners' report claims that, despite the reduction in flow through the main channel, the Wairau's flow will be maintained below the critical temperature above which Trout are unable to spawn, thanks to the continued inflow of cooling waters from its northern tributaries. Preliminary research by the Climate Change Unit of Waikato University, indicates that, within the next fifty years, these northern tributaries will produce more seasonally intermittent flows and at a higher temperature.
• Capital Cost. Official TrustPower estimates of the capital cost of the scheme are in the region of $280 million. During the hearing, a more realistic figure of $400 million was mentioned by TrustPower's counsel. The Scheme is envisaged as having a generating capacity of just 72 megawatts. A Capital cost of more than $5 million per megawatt will make this capacity very expensive, when compared to other methods of non-fossil fuel generation. (NZ Wind power generation, for instance, works out at approx $3 million per Megawatt.) This extra cost will be passed on to consumers. The mechanism that will allow this to happen is the new carbon trading regime. This will allow all electricity, no matter how generated, to be charged out at the same rate as fossil fuel generated electricity on which carbon tax has had to be paid.
• Carbon Emissions. The justification for this extreme effort to generate electricity, without burning fossil fuels, is the reduction of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The desired effect is to lessen New Zealand's contribution to the greenhouse effect. Though carbon emissions will be reduced once the scheme is operating, no account has been taken of the enormous carbon emissions during the construction phase. This is by far and away the largest infrastructure Marlborough has ever seen. Over the three year construction period, not only will there be huge disruption to the lives of many Marlborough residents living in proximity to the works, but millions of tonnes of earth will be moved by the burning of fossil fuels.
• Environmental Decline. The history of past civilizations demonstrates that those, which have not been destroyed as a consequence of war, have failed largely due to their attempt to exploit their environment beyond its capacity to offer an economic return. The inter-action of ecological systems and the acute value of the bio-diversity that they contain, are now generally recognized. This project is going to have an enormous impact on the natural environment of our province. There are many alternative ways of generating electricity which, even were they more expensive in capital terms than this proposal, would come at a far lesser environmental cost. Were both environmental, as well as capital, cost taken into account, this project would never have been contemplated.

TrustPower's Promise to use the Wairau Hydro-Scheme to benefit Marlborough's Consumers

We have been promised by TrustPower that our allowing them to make use of our river for their proposed power-generation scheme, will greatly benefit Marlborough's residents through the lower pricing that TrustPower will then be in a position to offer.

If we wish to judge the probability, or otherwise, of this assurance being honoured, it is interesting to look at TrustPower's past performance in this respect.

In May of this year, the Consumer magazine ran a survey of electricity retail price differentials up and down the country.

• In Auckland, out of 7 suppliers, TrustPower was the most expensive - 8.9% more expensive than Genesis, the cheapest.
• In Tauranga (their home base) TrustPower came 7 out of 8 suppliers. It was 18% more expensive than Energy Online, the cheapest.
• In Wellington, ranked No 6, TrustPower did much better - only 4.2% more expensive than Genesis, the cheapest.
• In Nelson, out of 4 suppliers, TrustPower came fourth - 6.5% more expensive than Genesis.
• In Dunedin, out of 5, it was fifth - 12.5% more expensive than Mercury at number 1.

Unfortunately, Consumer Magazine's survey did not include Marlborough. However, if you go to the Powerswitch site, you will find quoted, out of Marlborough's four suppliers, TrustPower is the most expensive. It comes in at a colossal 29.3% more expensive than Genesis (This represents an annual surcharge on the average consumer of $721.) TrustPower's "friends' in Kaikoura are even worse off. They pay 30.1% more than would be charged by the cheapest supplier, Genesis.

Electricity is electricity is electricity. There are no qualitative differentials within the commodity delivered. The additional sums gained by TrustPower on each unit of electricity they sell to the consumer, are there to be spent on the pure hype of building the brand of "the power generator you can trust." They are also available for fighting marginal and extremely expensive resource consent battles for foolishly expensive generation schemes.

The message would appear to be for every consumer in the country - and particularly for those in Marlborough - if you are with TrustPower, you are making unjustified contributions to an unjustifiable cause: switch providers!

12th March 2009

Welcome to the 11th newsletter of Save the Wairau River,

You will recently have received a reminder of the end of our financial year and the need for renewed membership and our request for donations. Thank you to those who have already responded. We reiterate the requirement for funds and remind people of the tax deductibility for donations. We acknowledge the difficult times people may be having and the recession has come at a bad time for STWR too, but any level of donation will be appreciated.

We have a busy year ahead with the appeal to the Environment Court in October, there are a number of Court directed deadlines to meet and we are on track with that. Additional information to the Court has been supplied and the next issue is the “property rights” of individual landowners to be heard in March. STWR is expected to support the landowners’ affidavits.

The cost of the appeal will be substantial. Application has been made for legal aid to help with employing expert witnesses and to the Canterbury Community Trust for funds for a promotional video. Additionally, a number of committee members have undertaken to set their own targets by enlisting donors from the public of $100 each.

In late April or early May we are planning to hold a Ceilidh – an evening of music and dance by a group of local Celtic musicians who support our efforts to protect the river. This will be a great opportunity for you to dust off your dancing shoes and have some fun with friends. The date and venue will be advised.

Members should note that we will have our Annual General Meeting after the end of March and you are welcome to attend. The date and venue will be advised shortly. Also your Committee meets regularly, usually fortnightly, and any member is welcome to attend. You may also contact individual Committee members at any time. See our website for contact details at www.savethewairau.co.nz

Please renew your membership as soon as you can and we encourage you to recruit as many new members as you are able. You can download a membership form from our website, Join the Fight page

October 2008

Good Evening,

Since Judge Willy's Hearings commission released their findings on the conditions by which TrustPower are to be bound, your committee has been preoccupied with the mechanics of the appeal to the Environment Court. This, we anticipate will be heard in about ten months' time. A separate sub-committee has been formed to work alongside our lawyers and to deal with the legal aspect of the Society's business. We feel confident that that side of our business is now well in hand.

We however, remain very much aware of the warning that we were given at the outset of our campaign to save the river. At the end of the day, as the nation's legal system is very much a part of the society and political system it springs from, the final outcome to the case will be dependant 20% on the Law and 80% on public opinion.

At the committee's meeting last week, we therefore decided to form a second sub-committee. This is the action sub-committee, which has been given the task of "raising general community awareness so that the Environment Court sits in the knowledge that the country is against the Wairau hydro-scheme.

This sub-committee, given its limited numbers and the fact that all the funds the Society has so far managed to raise have had to be dedicated to the legal battle, will be starting its activities on a modest scale. With the help of our members, we intend that the group will become increasingly active and, by a few months down the track, will be making a significant impression.

Much of this work will involve little more than increasing numbers of our people going and seeing other people and talking to them. Later on there will be media campaigns and other activities designed to bring to public notice the impending, and quite unnecessary, loss of one of New Zealand's five remaining braided rivers.

If any of you who read this bulletin wish, or are prepared, to help fund or become actively involved in this phase of the campaign, please contact hugh@prenzel.co.nz or r.tannock@xtra.co.nz or phone Hugh, after hours at 03-5786545.

August 13, 2008

... and now for the Environment Court

The final report of the three commissioners, appointed by Marlborough District Council to hear TrustPower of Tauranga's application to divert 60% of the Wairau River, has now been released.

Our Society is neither surprised nor disappointed by the report's contents. Having experienced the process and outcome of the initial hearings, a resounding "yes" to all of TrustPower's demands was only to be expected at this second stage. Why it took six months to deliver such an unremarkable document is hard to understand.

Act I of the process is now complete. In Act II, Marlborough District Council will be called upon to defend their Commissioner's findings in the Environment Court. Given the public statements of the vast majority of councillors that they are opposed to TrustPower's application, it will be up to concerned ratepayers to see how little of their funds can be devoted to this defence of the indefensible.

Save the Wairau River's mission is to preserve the Wairau River and its environment for the benefit of future generations of New Zealanders. It views this TrustPower application as no more than a very temporary obstacle to the achievement of its mission. The society will appeal the Commissioner's decisions to the Environment Court. It is confident that its case will there receive a fair and unbiased hearing and that TrustPower's application will not succeed at that point.

To this end, the Society has retained the Blenheim firm of Hardy-Jones Clark to lodge its appeal and to carry the case to the Environment Court. It could be anything between six months and a year until the case gets heard. In the meantime, we would call upon all the many people of Marlborough, who are aware of what is at stake in their province, and of other New Zealanders concerned at the possible destruction of one of the few unspoilt braided rivers that remain, to give us their full support. The true defence of the river, in the court which counts, is only now commencing.