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More than 800 Wairarapa homes at risk of flooding
6 Apr, 2021 11:15 PM
6 minutes to read
Aerial shot of the 1976 floods in Wairarapa. Photo / Wairarapa Archive
Wairarapa Times-Age
By: Sue Teodoro
And the cost to homeowners could exceed $40 million in Masterton alone.
As days become shorter and nights longer, residents in flood-prone areas are worried about how winter weather will affect them.
A Greater Wellington Regional Council spokesperson said about 590 properties in urban Masterton were at risk in a one-in-100-year flood, with about 130 properties in urban Greytown possibly affected.
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Estimates were not available for Martinborough, Featherston or Carterton.
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The cost would include damaged infrastructure, the clean-up and emergency services costs.
Press Release – Greater Wellington Regional Council
The council is urging the community to check for LAWA website warnings and alerts, following the emergence of toxic algal blooms in several rivers in both the Ruamahanga and Kapiti Coast catchments.
It advises caution to swimmers in the Ruamahanga and Kapiti Coast catchments and to keep dogs on leashes – as new amber alert level warnings are in place for Otaki River and the whole of the Ruamahanga River.
The council’s senior environmental scientist Dr Mark Heath says, “Toxic algae has increased to amber alert levels in the Ruamahanga and Otaki rivers so we strongly advise to check for toxic algae before you swim, and to keep all dogs and children away from the river’s edge. With warm and dry weather predicted over the next week it is likely that this risk will increase.”
Boat races in memory of Jason Buttimore at King of the River regatta in Whanganui
3 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
3 minutes to read
The Buttimore family (from left) Josh, Luke and Angela remembered a father and husband during a race he couldn t compete in. Photo / Lewis Gardner
Laurel Stowell is a reporter for the Whanganui Chroniclelaurel.stowell@whanganuichronicle.co.nzWhangaChron
A New Plymouth family was full of anticipation before its Bowtie Boogie motorboat started in a race to honour a man who died before he could rev up the engine. Seventeen-year-old Luke Buttimore piloted the bright red boat through a North Island title race in the Wanganui Motor Boat Club s King of the River regatta on Friday, January 1. He had raced smaller boats before, but only had his first brief try in the Bowtie that morning.
A taxpayer-funded, multi-million dollar project to assess groundwater stocks throughout Wairarapa is set to take flight in 2021.
Photo: Supplied
Local and regional councils have devoted about $2.5 million into a scheme to use aerial electromagnetic [AEM] technology to find and measure hidden water aquifers in the Ruamahanga valley.
It is hoped that accessing these subterranean reserves may ease the strain on the valley s water supplies.
The work will piggyback off this year s scans in Hawke s Bay.
The Bay s regional council completed its scanning in February, but the results are yet to be published.
Hawke s Bay Regional Council chairperson Rex Graham said: Water security is critical to the social, economic and environmental future of the region. Securing and managing our water starts with better understanding of what we have, how we use it and what future demand looks like .