4 March 2022
David Haynes
By email: [FYI request #18421 email]
Dear David
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA):
Request for Information
I refer to your emails of 3 February requesting information on the Rakaia and
surrounding area consents and flow information. Your request has been referred to
me to reply.
In relation to the Lake Coleridge Project, please provide the fol owing daily flow
readings, in cumecs, for 1st to 31st January 2022 inclusive:
1. Harper River intake volume.
2. Wilberforce River intake volume.
3. Lake Coleridge penstock outflow
Environment Canterbury does not have the data relating to the Harper River nor the
Wilberforce Rivers. Trustpower does not telemeter their take but provides the data on
an annual basis (by 31 July each year) and this is within the Water Metering
Regulations. From September this year all takes above 5L/s wil need to be
telemetered.
The outfall data for penstock is in the spreadsheet titled “Lake Coleridge Outfall
January 2022”.
Please provide the daily sum of all water abstractions for all consented water
takes for 1st to 31st January 2022 inclusive, below Lake Coleridge.
Environment Canterbury cannot provide consented daily volumes because not all
consents have an annual or daily volume, or they may have dif erent rates of take for
different low flow conditions. In the attached spreadsheet “Rakaia River Activities
Intakes plus associated Consents and consented Total Rate of Take” lists all the
intakes, the associated consent numbers and rate of take.
Please provide the daily total sums for all consented water abstractions for the
Rakaia River downstream of Lake Coleridge from 1st to 31st January 2022.
Please see the attached spreadsheet titled “Rakaia Jan m3 Combined 2020224”.
This spreadsheet has three tabs, the first pivot table details the daily volumes. The
water abstraction points (WAPS) can be referenced against the spreadsheet “river
Active Intakes etc”. The other two tabs are raw data and daily frequency of data
provision (included for completeness)
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2265C
Please note that the data in spreadsheet titled “Rakaia Jan m3 Combined 2020224”
may show data gaps or unusual (extreme) readings. We believe these are due to
technical issues with the equipment, but we are unable to resolve those issues at this
time. The issues wil be captured in our current project relating to ensuring
compliance of all abstraction consents on the Rakaia River.
Please provide me with compliance monitoring data for the last five years in
respect of the above Trustpower resource consent for the following consent
conditions
1.The consent holder shall maintain a surface flow of water in the Wilberforce
immediately downstream of the diversion bank, which by estimation shall not
be less than three cumecs.
2. The taking of water shall cease when the level of Lake Coleridge is above
RL509.3 metres (Lake Coleridge datum).
Regarding condition 1 and the requirement to maintain no less than 3m3/s
downstream of the diversion bank: This condition has not been monitored since
2017. Up until this point, only one non-compliance had been noted in 2013. However
specific details about why this occurred are not available. This condition is being
followed up with Trustpower as part of our monitoring project currently being
undertaken on the Rakaia so we can be confident that this is being monitored
appropriately.
Regarding condition 2 and the requirement to cease abstracting water from the
Wilberforce if the lake is above RL509.3: This condition has not been monitored
since 2017 but is being monitored as part of the monitoring project mentioned above.
Historically this condition has been graded compliant.
You wil be aware that if you are not satisfied with this response, you are able to refer
this matter to the Of ice of the Ombudsman under s27(3) of the LGOIMA.
Please be advised that we now put LGOIMA responses that are in the public interest
onto our website. No personal details of the requester are given, but we do summarise
the essence of the request alongside the response.
Should you require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to
contact Lil ian Sewell in the first instance
(lil [email address] or 033677340).
Yours sincerely,
Katherine Harbrow
Director Operations
File Number: GOVE/INQU/OMBU/2265C