The boardwalk and geothermal lake in Kuirau Park under a blanket of steam. Photo / NZME
Rotorua’s famed, but “fragile”, geothermal system is still recovering from a time when it was “dying from overuse”. Now, a “care plan” five years in the making has been drafted with the aim of protecting it for future generations.
The system, underlying much of the city, is the result of volcanic activity over hundreds of thousands of years and produces the hot springs, geysers and bubbling mud pools that helped make Rotorua a world-famous tourism destination. Its resources are also drawn for heating, geothermal energy and other uses.
The draft Rotorua Geothermal System Management Plan was approved for consultation by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Strategy and Policy Committee on Tuesday.
The plan focuses on the taking and use of the city’s geothermal activity. It proposes ways to better protect the mauri [life force] of the geothermal system by suggesting restrictions on how much of its resources can be taken.
There were 110 consented takes of geothermal water, heat and energy in Rotorua. Of these, 80 per cent were for commercial use.
The plan stated there were 1500 recorded geothermal surface features in Rotorua, which was New Zealand’s last remaining major geyser field.
Culturally, each geothermal feature is considered unique, known for possessing different values and acknowledged in different ways as living beings through whakapapa.
Tangata whenua used the geothermal system sustainably for years, a report presented to the meeting said. Between the 1960s and 1980s, mismanagement saw it decline and surface features lost. This prompted interventions, such as the 1999 Rotorua Geothermal Plan, that helped it recover and stabilise over the past four decades.
Rotorua’s geothermal activity was the only example in the world of a system “dying from overuse being healed through a sustainable management approach”, the plan stated.
“The system is fragile, and all of our knowledge systems are telling us the same story — that it is still recovering from our past mistreatment.”
Regional councillor Lyall Thurston, of Rotorua, said there would be “huge interest” in the plan, which had taken five long years.
The plan acknowledged that geothermal activity was a taonga and deserved to be treated as such, he said.
Council geothermal programme leader Penny Doorman proposed a consultation period for the plan to end before Christmas.
Councillor Kevin Winters, a former Rotorua mayor, said he wanted to prolong this as he did not think the timeframe was fair to the community.
“I don’t want this to be done and dusted in six weeks. This is so important to our community. It’s taken us five years to get to this point. Let’s not rush this,” he said.
The management plan had been being developed alongside tangata whenua since 2018.
Under the plan, existing and new Treaty of Waitangi settlements would be respected and honoured.
“Whilst there’s a lot of tangata whenua feedback, there’s a lot of other feedback as well,” Winters said.
“Give us time to get this right. We have to get things right. People have been waiting for this for decades. Let’s not rush things now.”
Doorman said staff were willing to accommodate the request and proposed ending the consultation in February 2024.
Councillor Te Taru White told Doorman he knew it had been “tough” creating the plan and that there had been a lot of passion from locals involved.
“I know that there’s lots of passion and you’ve been exposed to it all,” White said.
“I thank you for your courage under fire. It was not unnoted.”
White said communities in Ōhinemutu, Whakarewarewa and Ngapuna were “hugely strategic” to the plan and what they shared came “from their heart, from their ancestors”.
He said the plan was not a question of posing directives to the community, “it’s more ‘how do we go about sharing this for future generations’.”
The plan stated that “the first-in first-served approach under the RMA [Resource Management Act] limits future opportunities for equitable access”.
“There is no endless resource for all, so council needs to prioritise uses that benefit the most people and honour our responsibilities under Te Tiriti o Waitangi to ensure fair access to this taonga by tangata whenua.”
The management plan document described it as a “care plan” and stated there was a need to respond to unforeseen circumstances and have systems in place to allow the council to identify challenges “and readily adapt”.
“This is especially important as we face climate uncertainty and an evolving partnership landscape, and grow and embed new knowledge in our decision-making.”
The plan would be implemented through an action plan that was still to be developed and would be reviewed annually by a Rotorua Geothermal Governance group.
The plan stated keeping geothermal use at, or close to, current levels would ensure the aquifer stayed healthy.
“The system limit is the tipping point, where there is a risk the system might collapse. We do not know exactly where this limit is, but monitoring indicators warn us when we are approaching this limit.”
Allowing an increase in use would lead to changes in pressure and potentially “irreplaceable” surface features such as geysers and mud pools.
“Any significant increase in take will lead to unacceptable risk,” the plan stated.
The plan proposes the council consider the spatial distribution of takes and limit the density of takes in Sensitive Management Areas. It also suggested maintaining a publically accessible Geothermal Surface Feature database and restricting access to hazards with minimum setbacks of 20m to 100m.
The inclusion of Sensitive Management Areas in urban planning and spatial planning was also proposed.
The plan was expected to be reviewed every 10 years.
The committee approved the plan to go out for consultation and agreed, in principle, to the engagement and submissions process. It also appointed councillors White, Thurston and Winters to form part of a hearings panel for the public feedback process.
The plan was expected to be released for feedback by the end of this month.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
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