From wet to windswept, Cyclone Dovi in Whangamata was challenging for junior surfers but produced beautiful colourscapes by renowned surf photographer CPL. Photo / PhotoCPL
From wet to windswept, Cyclone Dovi in Whangamata was challenging for junior surfers but produced beautiful colourscapes by renowned surf photographer CPL. Photo / PhotoCPL
A total of $1.1 billion is the price tag for possible coastal protection for eight locations in the Coromandel at imminent or extreme risk of inundation.
That's according to a high-level report to Thames-Coromandel District Council.
Within the five settlements clustered in the Thames ward, the total estimated cost of possible protection works is $623 million.
Protection options considered include embankments, vertical walls and managing stormwater and doing river pumping.
The study by Royal HaskoningDHV identified locations where the risks associated with coastal erosion and inundation are imminent or high to extreme.
Mayor Sandra Goudie said the study - which is part of the Thames Coromandel Shoreline Management Plan project - was a desktop exercise that should not cause alarm over the figures.
"The project team is not advocating for the spend of a billion dollars, rather they have received a consultant's opinion, through a desktop exercise, on what these options might indicatively cost over 100 years, to help our communities decide if defending some areas of coastline with hard structures is a potential course of action.
"What we need to do now is talk to those communities about the full picture of information that we have assembled over our three-year project to confirm which solutions, costs and risk they think are appropriate."
The council had planned to hold those meetings soon but postponed them with the highly transmissible Omicron variant creating risk for a public meeting schedule.
The report was to have been presented on February 10 for the Shoreline Management Plan Joint Governance Committee but the meeting was cancelled.
The billion-dollar figure is horrendous in itself but it only tells part of the story
The report states it would be "very challenging from both an engineering and planning perspective" to protect the Thames township against coastal inundation for a 1 per cent AEP storm over the next 100 years.
Annual exceedance probability (AEP) is the chance or probability of a natural hazard event (such as a storm tide) of a particular size occurring or being exceeded annually. It is usually expressed as a percentage. For example, a 1 per cent AEP event has a 1 per cent chance of occurring in any year.
Councils around New Zealand are grappling with the probabilities and costs of natural hazards.
For a separate study, a Real Options Analysis, which considers the cost-benefit of defence against retreat, was done for Thames and showed the value of the assets in Thames is significantly greater than the cost of retreating, so should be defended.
Whitianga was given a potential $342 million cost, Tairua $87m and the tiny north Coromandel settlement of Colville $52m.
Waikato regional councillor Denis Tegg said the costs, though a high-level report, were also incomplete.
"The authors of the report acknowledge that and the costings don't cover all the potential costs, for example, they don't include consultants' reports and consent fees, all very, very expensive.
"The billion-dollar figure is horrendous in itself but it only tells part of the story."
Meanwhile, Mayor Goudie's refusal so far to sign the local government climate leader's declaration is being called out by councillors at a meeting today.
Thames ward councillor Martin Rodley has filed a notice of motion for the full council to nominate a councillor to sign instead.
The mayor announced in December she would spend summer thinking over her refusal to sign, despite a court order demanding public input and 94 per cent of submitters wanting her to sign.
Under the declaration, the council would commit to working with central government on national emission reduction targets.
Locally, it would adopt action plans with language aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by:
• promoting walking, cycling, public transport and other low carbon transport options; • working to improve the resource efficiency and health of homes, businesses and infrastructure in the district; and • supporting the use of renewable energy and uptake of electric vehicles.
A High Court ruling in 2020 went in favour of Thames-based climate activists Hauraki Coromandel Climate Action (HCCA), which sought a judicial review of the mayor's refusal to sign.
The judgment found Thames-Coromandel District Council broke its own laws by refusing to sign because it did not do the analysis or consider consultation with the district as required by the Local Government Act and its own Significance and Engagement Policy.
Councils are required under national legislation to focus on adaptation and consider climate change in resource management decisions.
Mayor Goudie would not comment until after the committee meeting on Thursday. Any decision made at the committee meeting will need to be ratified at a full council meeting.
Tegg said the council still has entire discretion about what action they take and what projects, along with what financial impact that might have on ratepayers.
Tegg said: "The council have heard Mayor Goudie's point of view and rejected it.
