Find out about Hydraulic Fracturing in NZ

Twenty years ago Havelock North was hit by a campylobacter outbreak and 80 people were ill. Hastings District Council was told to raise the bore heads above ground – but this never happened. However, in response to the 1998 gastro outbreak a plan for a new bore was developed, and in 2009 the council approved a $4.5 million Project #202091 to drill a new bore in the secure, confined aquifer at Whakatu with a rising main to Havelock North.

But in 2011, under the leadership of Mayor Lawrence Yule and CEO Ross McLeod the council abandoned that project because it was “not a good investment”. Mayor Yule: “When I look at the implications for spending millions of dollars on upgrading bores, I am struggling to understand why we have to do this. Other than doing a good thing of conserving water, I can’t understand why we have to do this.” Read the full article. 

As at September 2018 the council has still not drilled a new bore for Havelock North’s town supply. Hastings District Council “apologised” to Havelock North for the contamination of their town supply in August 2016 – Mayor Lawrence Yule: “We are apologising to the whole community for what’s happened even though we did not cause it - we are committed to fixing it.” Actions speak louder than words. View the full video.

Posted at 9:37am.

A Hawke’s Bay community says the local council’s decision to chlorinate their water is a complete overreaction to the Havelock water crisis. Nearly 400 locals in the seaside villages of Haumoana and Te Awanga, have signed a petition calling for the council to stop treating their bore. Hastings Councillor Rod Heaps thinks the council’s decision was an “overreaction” to the Havelock fallout.  "But it’s not mandatory that we should be treating other town supplies.“ Read the full article. 

Posted at 7:02pm.

Here in Hawke’s Bay the public are starting to rebel.  An editorial in Hawke’s Bay Today put it this way: “Thorny science, fear, economics and the spectre of a hapless Havelock North repeat will ensure Napier will, probably, soon permanently deliver water with the same chemical makeup as its twin city, Hastings.  Council’s manager asset strategy, Chris Dolley, has been quick to reiterate that most of the country was already drinking chlorinated water. Here’s hoping he, and council, see that as a reason not to follow suit - rather than a basis to push permanent bleaching.” Read the full article.

Posted at 6:57pm.

If Napier residents can have safe drinking water free of chlorine treatment why can’t Hastings? If the water-bottling companies don’t need to treat the water they extract from the confined Heretaunga aquifer what’s wrong with Hastings District Council’s bores?  Napier City Council is soon to withdraw the chlorine it has been using to protect the public while the 460km of water supply network has been flushed, and corroded seals and pipework repaired.  The council informs us that the work should be completed and approved by Christmas when chlorine treatment will be removed.  That’s good news.

However, Hastings council’s strategy appears to be driven by a fixation on the theory that the source water in the Heretaunga Aquifer is somehow “insecure” and council staff are focused on water treatment rather than drilling new bores in the secure, confined aquifer.  It all goes back to Havelock North’s water contamination crisis. While the Regional Council’s evidence demonstrated that lack of bore maintenance was a significant contributor, Hastings District Council’s lawyers succeeded in convincing the Water Inquiry that it was more likely that surface contamination had permeated the thin layer of semi-confined aquifer in the Brookvale bore field .

Read the full article.

Posted at 7:50pm.

Let’s tax the water-bottling companies, at the point of extraction.  Tax them right out of existence – the same level of tax as the government imposes on the tobacco industry.

There is no place for water-bottling companies in New Zealand. They add no value to this precious “commodity”.

The water-bottlers crept in under the radar and have gone viral throughout the whole country, from Northland to down to Southland, abusing our lax legislation to get their hands on the nation’s best water, while many of us have to make do with second-grade drinking water: think Havelock North campylobacter crisis August 2016.  

HEALTHY RIVERS ARE A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE.

We need to concentrate on the real job of cleaning up our waterways because we know that what’s in our waterways tends to end up in our kitchen taps.

We need to protect what we’ve got, get smarter about the way we use water, and encourage conservation of water wherever possible. The package must include cleaning up our rivers.

Yes, that will cost money.  So all water use should be metered and we should all pay.  If all users pay their fair share it will be a small price to ensure that we can drink the water from the tap and not get sick.  And by “all users” we mean all New Zealanders, including the farmers, industry and domestic consumers.

There is no rural-urban divide when it comes to safe drinking water:  the rivers connect us all.

Let’s start cleaning up our waterways, for our own sake.

NATIONAL PARTY’S FRESHWATER POLICY

National talks about “swimmable rivers” - but not yet - maybe by 2040.  And meantime their policy is to actually make it easier for the polluters to pollute by doubling the quantity of nitrogen that farmers can allow to seep off the paddock and into the waterways and rivers. The Government’s water inquiry seems to be hellbent on making it mandatory for all public drinking water supplies to be chlorinated, throughout the whole of New Zealand.  That would fit neatly with National’s policy on river pollution: “you can keep drinking the polluted water - just add chemicals”.

Read our article Our Water is Not for Sale here.

Posted at 8:10pm.