5 September 2018
Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff continues to monitor the water levels at Lake Ōkāreka and the quantity of water flowing down the Waitangi Stream.
As of today, the Lake Ōkāreka water level is still sitting within 185mm of the target range maximum.
Council staff have been able to maintain this level since May through discharging 360L/s water under the emergency consent.
Staff have maintained this moderate flow to ensure that no excessive pressure has been put on the Waitangi Stream through this time.
Last month a working party meeting was held with various parties from Lake Okareka, Lake Tarawera and local iwi.
As an outcome of the meeting, a draft resource consent application is being prepared to allow a higher flow to be discharged down the Waitangi Stream while it is expected that the permanent protection works for the Waitangi Stream will be authorised by the emergency consent.
The protection work would involve engineering rock design areas of the stream with the highest risk of erosion.
Geotechnical investigations have revealed risk areas of the stream bank in some locations. The investigations have shown that there was the risk of stream bank failure without additional flows down the stream. The need to discharge increased flows during 2017 initiated the geotechnical investigations that identified this risk.
For more information, please contact Ruth Keber at The Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Programme on info@rotorualakes.co.nz.
