Ashburton council to workshop dwindling Lake Camp

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Ashburton councillors will hold a workshop to decide where they stand on the situation at Lake Camp.

There are fears the lake could become little more than a puddle as the water level has dropped dramatically over the last few years.

And there is divided opinion over whether the council should intervene to top up the lake's levels.

Councillor Richard Wilson raised the issue with his fellow councillors at the activity briefing meeting on Wednesday, the first time the council has met since June 26.

With the issue “bubbling along quite strongly” in the community, the council needed to decide its stance, Wilson said.

The Lake Clearwater Residents Association presented the Ashburton Water Zone committee, which Wilson sits on, with a proposal that an organisation seek the resource consent to reinstate the Balmacaan Stream to top up the levels of Lake Camp.

Other agencies aren’t inclined to do anything about it so the district council is “being tossed around” as the ones to take up the resource consent, Wilson said.

Compliance and development group manager Jane Donaldson said it the council’s stance was up to councillors.

The cost of seeking the resource consent could be at least $25,000, she said.

“I don’t know what the chances of success would be, I suspect not high.”

The statutory agencies involved in the Ōtuwharekai working group were not in support of the diversion, she said.

“If you decided as a council you wanted to support it, then you could instruct staff to go ahead and hire consultants to prepare a resource consent application.”

Chief executive Hamish Riach said creating a detailed report on the issue to help make that decision could take months to collate all the complex scientific information, “and I have no doubt it will confirm the need for a resource consent”.

Mayor Neil Brown said the first step is to get an overview of the situation to look into “do we need or want to go further”.

“A workshop might be the best way to advance it.”

Having representatives from ECan, DOC, Te Runanga Arowhenua, Fish and Game, the hut holders and other parties to add the various perspectives would benefit the workshop. he said.

Given the public interest in Lake Camp, the workshop would be public, Riach said.

Councillor Rob Mackle said the issue needed to be addressed quickly and supported action to restore the diversion as right next door to Lake Camp, Lake Clearwater “hasn’t depleted to the same levels” in the same drought conditions.

“It’s basically ECan sitting on their hands again and letting this happen. We need to be in a position to give them a shunt.”

The council has been promoting the area and tourists have been flowing in there, he said.

“We are going to lose those people to another area very quickly and once they start using another lake, coming back here is going to be a big ask.”