Click on the Candidate for their response

Council

Chris Kirk-Burnnand

Thank you for your questions. Please note that I am a candidate, not an existing member of GWRC and as such I recognise that I have a lot to learn if I am elected. I would expect to research matters before committing to policy support on issues.

What are the challenges facing the Inlet?

I have lived on the Inlet for over 40 years and note that whenever we have heavy rain there appears to be muddy water running into the Inlet. I walk around the Eastern end and am concerned about the need to encourage further bird life within  this environment. If elected I would look to seek advice on such matters and the issues before mouthing off about them.

What are your priorities for the Inlet?

If elected I would first work to make sure there is alignment between GWRC staff who manage and allocate funding and the aims of the Guardians of Pauatahanui Inlet. I would then consider what level of funding was needed.

What would you do about these challenges and priorities if you were elected?

The present GWRC Councilors have done a poor job regarding the buses and transport solutions. This means that 65% of the annual budget has been handled poorly on behalf of the 520,000 citizens that they represent. I would work to bring about robust, research based decision making. I would reduce waste and encourage efficiency and an effective organisational focus. This would free up funding so we can apply it in a reasoned manner that makes our community and the Inlet a better environment for my grandchildren to grow up in.

I have the experience, skills and ability to improve Governance of GWRC and would appreciate your support and vote.  <Back to top>

Anita Baker

What are the challenges facing the harbour?

Siltation from streams, especially Porirua Stream from the industrial areas and the rural streams feeding the Pauatahanui catchment, Transmission Gully build and development. Also wastewater overflows going into the harbour. 

What are your priorities for the inlet?

To repair broken stormwater pipes and reduce the amount of private homeowners' cross-connections that are joined to the sewer network, not the stormwater network. To get the Inlet back to swimable levels and reduce the bacteria levels. 

What would you do about these challenges and priorities if elected?

Work with the Whaitua recommendations where possible and keep the budgets at a level required to allow Wellington Water to do the work. I would also like the Harbour Committee to be brought into full council and see GWRC put more money into PCC for the harbour and the main catchment streams that are GWRC responsibility. We also need to ensure WCC pays its fair share for the treatment plant and cleanup of stormwater going into the Porirua Stream.  <Back to top>

Ross Leggett

Challenges: For me the 2 key challenges are waste-water overflows impacting E.coli levels and the rate, and impact, of siltation, which we now know has doubled over the past 5 years. These challenges include inflows, generated by the catchment within the Wellington City Council boundaries, which also impact harbour health.

Priorities: To address the above challenges by focusing PCC's waste-water spend, in particular on the network it owns, to reduce overflows; but also on private homeowners who have connections to the waste-water network when it should be to the storm-water network. Addressing siltation is mainly about planting more trees in the right areas.

What would I do if elected: Ensure that our waste-water infrastructure spend will (over time) result in a reduction in waste-water leaks and overflows; concurrently I will help to ensure that PCC develops a simple and direct strategy to address private cross-connections; work to see a new harbour strategy incorporating the Whaitua recommendations that has the support of the three council partners; then work actively to see that GWRC prioritises its spending to assist in giving effect to the strategy, including helping to increase targeted catchment planting. We also need to make sure that Wellington City Council pays its fair share for the impact its storm and waste-water is having on the harbour. Finally I will work to make sure that our District Plan encourages the right behaviour in terms of water-neutrality, and the handling of storm and waste-water, so that new developments will not further impact the harbour.  <Back to top>

Josh Trlin

What are the challenges facing the Inlet?

The Inlet is facing a range of challenges – most notably major silt and sediment build-up and pollution from insufficient storm and wastewater infrastructure.  This is a major issue in terms of harbour sustainability and preservation of the local ecology.

Silt and sediment build up has always occurred in the harbour but has massively accelerated due to the developments occurring in Porirua. Everything from land clearance for farming to new housing developments through to Transmission Gully has created a huge amount of runoff that is filling the harbour up much faster than it is able to naturally clear. In the last five years the amount of sediment has doubled, and if we don’t act soon to slow this down we could reach a point of no return for harbour health.

Pollution from insufficient storm and wastewater infrastructure occurs because of storm events overwhelming the system and flushing waste into the harbour. This will only get worse as we get more regular and intense storm events due to climate change and pressure builds due to population growth.

Failure to act quickly on both of these issues will be of major harm to the health of Pāuatahanui Inlet.

What are your priorities for the Inlet?

Preservation and restoration of the entirety of Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour is one of my absolute top priorities, and this is inextricably linked with the health of Pāuatahanui Inlet.  I want to make sure we dramatically reduce both the silt and sediment runoff that is choking the harbour and pollution from our insufficient water networks.  In doing so it is incredibly important that council works with the kaitiaki of Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour, Ngāti Toa.

Silt and sediment runoff will never be fully prevented as some happens naturally – in fact, the local ecology has evolved to account for a certain degree of it occurring. However we can dramatically reduce the amount occurring by both implementing better development practices and investing in better land management, including replanting, in key locations around the harbour and Inlet.

On pollution I want to get out ahead of the increased strain on infrastructure we know is coming from population growth and climate change by investing in upgrading our water networks.

By reducing all forms of pollution contaminating the harbour and Inlet we can begin the process of healing – a process that is important both for local residents and ecology alike.

What would do about these challenges and priorities if you’re elected?

First and foremost, any work we do on Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour and Pāuatahanui Inlet must be done in partnership – with Ngāti Toa as the kaitiaki, with Wellington City as an exacerbator of our harbour’s poor health, with GWRC as the regulator, and with central government.

If elected I will push for development practices to be altered in order to reduce silt and sediment runoff. That looks like changing consenting processes to require sufficient evidence of runoff prevention and minimisation and developing a comprehensive erosion and sediment control management plan.

We need to improve our land management through programs like replanting in key remnant areas, and do so in partnership with local landowners who also have an interest in the harbour’s health.

We need better infrastructure management and to properly invest in both improving wastewater networks to reduce overflow events, and increasing maintenance of our networks to minimise dry weather leaking – an issue that causes sustained pollution even through the summer months when people are using the harbour more.

I’m apprehensive when it comes to dredging as some are proposing due to the impact it is likely to have on harbour health, and the damage that it would cause to our rare and fragile ecosystem. For me to support any case for dredging it would have to guarantee that it would not destroy the local ecosystem and in fact benefit harbour health in the long run.

We need to give the harbour and Inlet every opportunity possible to begin properly healing from the severe damage it has undergone – particularly in recent years.  <Back to top>