Finlayson shocked at weed around Lake Waikaremoana

Chris Finlayson has accused Genesis Energy of negligence over weed management at Lake Waikaremoana. File picture

by Kate Green, RNZ

A former National minister and deputy chair of Te Urewera Board has accused energy company Genesis of negligence in its management of weeds at Lake Waikaremoana.

The East Coast’s Great Walk  at the lake reopened yesterday after nearly 11 months of repairs following Cyclone Gabrielle. The lake is Māori land, majority owned by Ngāi Tūhoe, and Genesis leases the lake for energy production.

The lake is Māori land, majority owned by Ngāi Tūhoe, and the Crown - which has a majority stake in Genesis - leases the lake.

The company has been able to use the lake for energy production via an "operating easement", which Land Information New Zealand explains "is a right agreed between a landowner and another party to use land for a particular purpose, and can be registered against the property's title."

Deputy chair of Te Urewera Board, Chris Finlayson, told RNZ’s Summer Times the reopening of the track couldn’t have gone better in terms of support, but he was shocked at the amount of weed growth in the lake.

“It’s caused immeasurable damage,” Finlayson said. “(Genesis is) a mixed ownership model company, but they really need to be held to account for their negligence. Frankly, I just couldn’t get over the extent of the weeds in some of the bays;  it’s just a very serious matter.”

Te Urewera was declared a legal entity in the Te Urewera Act 2014, giving it the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person, with the board as its primary decision-maker.

Mr Finlayson was the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations at the time.

He said yesterday he would like the board to sit down with Genesis and talk through the issue.

“Where there used to be beaches there are now weeds and that’s totally unsatisfactory.”

Genesis rejected the accusation.

“Genesis takes seriously its responsibility to operate the Waikaremoana Power Scheme within the strict resource consent requirements that take into account the communities that use the lake, live along and downstream of the scheme, and the environment,” it said in a statement.

It said the weed growth was caused by a lack of weed control, which used to be managed collaboratively by many organisations, including Genesis, but stopped after the Tūhoe Treaty Settlement in 2014.

“That extensive weed control work is simply not happening any more, which is disappointing,” the company said.

“Genesis has always been and remains willing to contribute to weed control efforts by those who have the responsibility to do so. We welcome meeting with the Te Urewera board and seeing how we can work constructively together.”