Cyclone Gabrielle: Hawke’s Bay still only scratching the surface of silt removal work

Up to 900 truckloads a day are being dumped at Hawke's Bay silt-deposit sites. Photo / Warren Buckland

Four million cubic metres of silt still have to be removed from Hawke’s Bay.

To put that in perspective, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) has collected and deposited just 160,000 cubic metres of it in the months since Cyclone Gabrielle devastated the province.

That’s with 900 truckloads a day being dumped at the region’s six silt deposit sites. Four new deposit sites are set to become operational in the next few weeks.

“We have 301 jobs logged for an estimated 1,000,000 cubic metres of silt to be collected. We estimate this is 25 per cent of the silt to be collected,’’ HBRC silt recovery taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said.

As well as new sites to accommodate silt, the HBRC is assembling a “small team’' to deal with public requests for silt removal. An email address and phone number have been set up to deal with inquiries, which the HBRC say will be handled by their “customer experience team’’. The number is 0800 108 838.

That information will be passed on to the small silt team, which will notify individuals about the status of their silt-removal request.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for the Environment is considering legislative amendments that would ease restrictions on councils and community groups seeking to clean up and rebuild in the wake of February’s cyclone.