The Marlborough District Council has been successful in securing funding from the Government’s Freshwater Improvement Fund to help restore the health of the town’s Taylor River.
A government grant of $261,950 will enable the Taylor River Project to be extended to a wider stakeholder group. While existing stakeholders including the Council Reserves Function, the local Landscape Group and schools will remain the group will also include iwi, viticulture and pastoral farming representatives.
Focusing on the two main issues facing the Taylor River; E.coli and sedimentation from run-off and bank erosion, the stakeholder group will embark on large-scale riparian plantings of the riverbank over the next five years.
It is envisaged that the native plants will not only act as a buffer, protecting the Taylor River and its main feeder Doctors Creek from sediment, but they will also provide some shading and benefit the ecology in the streams.
A related part of the project that will transform the state of the Taylor River, although not included in the government funding, is the replacement and repair of Blenheim’s sewerage and stormwater networks. Following the November 2016 earthquake, video inspections of the pipes and DNA source tracking carried out by the Council found that E.coli was entering the Taylor River from the network as a result of damaged pipes. Once this issue is fixed it will help prevent contaminants leaking into the waterway resulting in an immediate change in the water quality.
Blenheim’s Taylor River is a central feature of the town and although it’s a floodway, it is also an important recreational area. These two important pieces of work will allow the river to be swimmable most of the time.
The allocation of government funding towards the $527,400 community driven project will allow both Council and the community to turn their vision of making the Taylor River as clean as possible into a reality.
Second local project to receive funding:
A second project in Marlborough is also to receive funding through the Freshwater Improvement Fund is the Moawhitu Lake and wetland on d’Urville Island. The grant of $258,000 of the total $535,500 required will be used to undertake earthworks to restore water levels, riparian planting and fish habitat restoration.
Background:
Freshwater Improvement Fund:
Last year the Government approved a $100 million Freshwater Improvement Fund for projects that improve freshwater management. The aim is to make the biggest difference with the available funding, so the focus is on waterbodies in vulnerable catchments.
The grants allocated in August 2017 are the first tranche of funding from the Freshwater Improvement Fund. Bids for the fund opened on 23 February, closed on 13 April, were assessed by an independent panel in May with recommendations made to the Minister in July.