Hokitika River threat a 'disaster waiting to happen'

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

A billion-dollar business that underpins the West Coast economy is under threat for want of better flood protection on the Hokitika River.

"It's a disaster waiting to happen."

That was the pithy message from long-time Grey Valley dairy farmer and former Grey district councillor Paul Berry to the West Coast Regional Council last week.

"Seriously, it could flood tomorrow," Berry said in a to-the-point presentation to the council's Infrastructure Governance Committee.

Strengthening the floodwall on the northern channel of the Hokitika River, where it was cutting into the bank behind the Westland Milk Products dairy factory, should have started three months ago.

With his 60-year experience of big West Coast rivers and knowing their ability to suddenly change course, he said no one could afford complacency about what could happen with the Hokitika River.

"That job needed starting two to three months ago. There are over 300 family farms in our region and they need their milk picked up 24/7, and if anything like has happened in the North Island comes up, it's bad news for the factory.

"It's a disaster just waiting to happen - and we don't need another one," Berry told the committee.

A solution for the riverbank including heightening it has been in the planning for the past year. The regional council gained several millions of 'shovel ready' money from the Government to improve flood protection along the lower Hokitika River bordering the residential and town centre.

However, with the departure of key staff at the regional council, the project has lagged.

Former Westland mayor Bruce Smith warned before the local body elections last year that the regional council and Westland District Council faced "litigation risk" if they did not get on with it.

Last week, councillor Peter Haddock asked Berry how he rated the current risk on the Hokitika River behind the dairy factory.

Berry said he could only speak on the basis of "the university of life".

But to him if an 'old man flood' arrived now he could not see anything less than a catastrophe - not only for the factory but also residential Hokitika.

The river was chewing its way towards an old channel and was now within metres of being a major threat to the entire area.

"It's curtains. Rivers like soft curves [and] chewing out gravel. We can't make it any clearer than that."

Infrastructure committee chairperson councillor Frank Dooley said from what Berry was saying, the dairy factory was "extremely vulnerable".

"It is not only the biggest employer on the West Coast but creates the most income per GDP," Dooley said, so the council had a responsibility to act with urgency.

Haddock said there was also the environmental factor to consider if the dairy factory was affected by flooding, leaving farmers from Karamea to Fox Glacier having to dump their milk.

Councillor Andy Campbell, a Harihari dairy farmer, said the threat to the dairy industry was too important to leave until after the event to fix.

"We can't wait for big floods and want to do something about it ... it's a $1 billion industry."

Dooley said the proposed Hokitika River protection scheme was due to be discussed in-committee but he assured Berry "we are on to it".

*Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air.