In total, five sessions were held on Wednesday and Thursday, which focused on tributaries in the Manuherikia catchment. This included Dunstan, Lauder, Thomsons and Chatto creeks, along with a session focusing on the main stem of the Manuherikia River.

Staff from the Environmental Resource Science unit presented detailed information on the ecology and hydrology of the Manuherikia catchment.

“Following on from an initial round of community sessions in early June, we had clear feedback from the community, that they wanted to hear more about the science that underpins the draft minimum flow limits,” said Chief Executive Sarah Gardner.

“With a series of irrigation schemes, many of which originated from the old days of goldmining, the Manuherikia catchment is a complex one. These sessions have given us an opportunity to explain the ecology and hydrology of the catchment while listening to the community and verifying what we know. While the conversations have been robust and constructive, we’re happy with the number of people who have turned-out. It has made the sessions very worthwhile,” said Mrs Gardner.

Social, economic and cultural reports are yet to be completed for the Manuherikia catchment. When finalised, these reports will help determine the minimum flow limits that will be put forward for notification.

“In line with the Council resolution was that was passed on 27 June, we’ll be continuing to work with the community as we progress through this plan change, and as these reports become available,” said Mrs Gardner.

A similar science session focusing on the Upper Cardrona catchment, will take place in Wanaka next week.

Mrs Gardner made an organisational commitment to hold more meetings in order to share and understand data from irrigators.

She said, “This will inform the development of a model that will allow us to run a variety of scenarios to evaluate surety and contribute to further economic analysis. One of those scenarios will include the current minimum flow that irrigators on the main stem manage.”

The data presented to the attendees was collected from two sources: resource consents and data collected from flow monitoring and flow gauging.

Mrs Gardner concluded, “We recognise that this is not a complete data set and in order to ensure our science is as accurate as possible, we need the ongoing assistance of the community to supply the data they have and to continue attending these sessions moving forward.”

Minimum flows website: https://yoursay.orc.govt.nz/minimumflows