Waiwhetu Stream breathe easy
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Last Thursday work kicked off to restore Waiwhetu stream?s wellbeing and line its banks with over 20,000 native plants. The works began with an opening ceremony outside the Pelorus Trust Sportshouse in Seaview, with Owhiti Urupa Trustees opening the ceremony with a blessing of the stream. Hutt City Mayor David Ogden is particularly pleased that work is starting on the clean-up. ?As well as helping to restore the ecological and environmental values of the stream, it will ease the concerns of residents and businesses whose properties were flooded twice in 2004,? he says. Clean-up and flood protection work is scheduled to take place until late 2010, at a total project cost of about $14 million. Waiwhetu Stream Advisory Subcommittee Chair Cr Prue Lamason is enthusiastic the highly anticipated project will be a success. ?Not only is the issue of contamination being addressed but a section of the stream from Bell Road south will be deepened and widened, which will greatly reduce the risk of flooding in the future,? she says. The project will improve the health of the stream and its surrounding environment by removing contaminated sediment downstream of the Bell Road Bridge. Waiwhetu Stream became contaminated from the dumping of untreated industrial discharges up until 1978 when a trade waste sewer was installed. Heavy metals such as lead, zinc, copper and cadmium, as well as pesticides, have been found in the sediment.? There is a risk that if the sediments are not removed, a major event such as a large flood or an earthquake could cause them to be flushed into Wellington harbour, causing significant environmental harm.?Channel widening and deepening works for flood protection will be carried out at the same time. Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington and the Ministry for the Environment all have a hand in financing the clean-up.
