Avon-Heathcote Estuary: How it was saved

The story of how our Avon-Heathcote Estuary was 'saved' started in the summer 2000/2001. A determined band of Christchurch citizens declared enough was enough and hardened their campaign for the discharge into the Estuary to be stopped.

They came from all walks of life including scientists, engineers, planners, environmentalist and ordinary concerned residents who could bring together strong scientific and technical arguments along with powerful emotional stories portraying the great sense of loss to the Estuary.

The first task, spearheaded by the Christchurch Estuary Association, was to defeat or contain the consent for another 35 years of discharge into the Estuary.

Then second was to secure the ocean outfall decision, first promulgated by the 1996 working party but delayed and obfuscated on for ten years until the Commissioners for the Estuary discharge and the City Council's committee of environmental experts said there had to be a better way.

The third task was to show the Council that an outfall was both feasible and economic and that the community was going to have a serious input into the details of the design. This was the birth of the Avon Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust, an advocate body that was formally constituted on 18 June 2002.

Ihutai is the Maori word meaning "the nose of the tide". It has been incorporated into the Trust's name to reflect the scope of the Estuary and historic Maori connection with it. A connection that was rudely and profoundly disrupted when Sandy Point and the area behind was taken under the Public Works Act for use of the city's sewage treatment works and effluent ponds.

This caused a profound sense of loss among the iwi with mana whenua over Ihutai, Te Rununga o te Ngai Tuahuriri. Small steps to acknowledge this injustice arise from the Trust's work which includes supporting research to identify and publicise the importance of mana whenua, mahinga kai and how these cultural values of the Estuary might be restored.

With the discharge argument settled the Ihutai Trust (as it is referred) embarked on a programme to establish income and a programme of advocacy for the Estuary. With funding support from the City and the Regional Councils work commenced on a management plan - a non-statutory one.

This distinction is important, as a non-statutory plan allowed freedom from the planning constraints of the Resource Management Act. The Trustees produced a plan that integrated the land and water interface in ways that had not been done previously under statutory process and statutory division of local responsibilities.

Another feature of non-statutory planning in this way is the ability to take the long view and show that often less money needs to be spent on works because they are producing a better, longer lasting outcomes than would otherwise be achieved when failing to take a balanced view of environmental impacts and issues.

Simple, yes, but unfortunately, not always available to politicians, planners and bureaucrats when they constrain themselves with short-term economic goals and political expediency.

The Ihutai Trust is about to commence a review of the Estuary management plan and will be inviting community involvement for this work. The plan and other information about the Trust and its activities can be found on http://www.estuary.org.nz.

[Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60364452@N00/1575140681 ]