Media advisory

3 September 2015

Waimakariri Zone Committee focuses on stormwater quality and Kaiapoi River Rehabilitation

The Waimakariri Zone Committee will meet in Rangiora on Monday (7 September) for its regular monthly meeting to address local water management issues.

The zone committee will begin the meeting by welcoming the committee’s three new community members (Carolyne Latham, Gary Walton and Nick Haley). Each year the community membership on Canterbury’s ten zone committees is refreshed to ensure new perspectives are reflected.

Members of the public will then be given the opportunity to contribute, should they wish, before going on to receive updates from its working groups and the progress being made to address water management priorities in the zone.

Following this, the committee will receive a briefing on the Regional Stormwater Forum and how drainage management is addressed through the Forum’s work streams. The Steering Group has been convened to improve urban stormwater network consenting processes, stormwater management and associated environmental outcomes.

The committee will then receive a report from the Waimakariri District Council on the progress being made by the Kaiapoi River Rehabilitation Working Party to scope options for rehabilitating the Kaiapoi River. The report also introduces to the Zone Committee a concept design, options and recommendations report for rehabilitating the upper Kaiapoi River channel.

The Working Party is making an application to the zone committee for Immediate Steps funding to help with the project. The Immediate Steps programme supports projects that protect and restore freshwater biodiversity values in Canterbury.

There is still around $70,000 of funding to be allocated by the zone committee so if you have a project that could benefit from Immediate Steps funding visit www.ecan.govt.nz/biodiversity for further information and an application form.

Following the meeting, the committee will hold a work-shop on the zone’s sub-regional planning process which will begin next year. The committee will work with the community to develop recommendations which will form the basis of a sub-regional chapter on the Waimakariri Zone in the Land and Water Regional Plan. A series of meetings were held earlier in the year to ensure the community were involved in the process as early as possible.

The Waimakariri Zone Committee, formed in September 2010, operates as a joint committee of Environment Canterbury, and the Waimakariri District Council. It features five community members as well as two Rūnanga representatives and two from councils.

The zone includes the Ashley River catchment and shares the Waimakariri catchment below the gorge with the Selwyn-Waihora and Christchurch-West Melton zones. It includes Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Oxford.

Meeting Details

Waimakariri Zone Committee meeting

Date: 3:30pm, Monday, 7 September, 2015

Venue: Waimakariri District Council Chambers, Rangiora

For more information or an agenda visit www.ecan.govt.nz/canterburywater

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