Concrete is blocking the road near Bluecliffs in Southland as erosion has led to a state of emergency being put in place. Photo / Toni McDonald
Concrete is blocking the road near Bluecliffs in Southland as erosion has led to a state of emergency being put in place. Photo / Toni McDonald
Bluecliffs residents have left the Southland seaside settlement after police arrived to enforce an evacuation order this afternoon.
The small hamlet at the mouth of the Waiau River – 10km from Tūātapere in Southland – has been under a state of emergency since February 8 in the wake of ongoing erosion problems accelerated by the nearby river.
Residents had been asked by Emergency Management Southland to vacate their properties by 4pm today.
One resident told the ODT police would need to be brought in to move them.
Three police officers were on the scene before 4pm and talking to a group of about 10 residents.
Running a honey business from her property had become a “nightmare” for Sirch, who said it wasn’t possible to get organised in the allotted time.
She wondered how she would manage invoices, orders and deliveries for the three-week period while living offsite.
But the main reason Sirch had decided to ignore the evacuation was because she still hadn’t received an answer in writing about liability
“They keep saying the contractor is insured, but we haven’t been told in writing he’s actually insured for digging explosives,” she said.
“Does the insurer know what he’s doing?
“I’m intending to stay here until my questions are answered.”
Mother of three Tess Thurlow told the ODT earlier today the alternative accommodation she had been offered was simply not good enough and she was going to refuse to move.
“I am not going anywhere.”
An aerial view of coastal Southland settlement Bluecliffs, which is being evacuated ahead of work to clear the dump site. Photo / Emergency Management Southland
Because the two-bedroom apartments in Tūātapere were booked out she had been offered to stay in a neighbouring hostel or a two-bedroom apartment in Winton.
The hostel was too small and the accommodation in Winton would mean a two-hour round trip to get her children to school.
The Tūātapere option would also mean sharing a single room with her three children, one of whom had mental health issues.
“I’ve just told them that I am not moving to those. I am not going to leave, there are about three of us down here that are not going to leave.”
People were being asked to live in cramped spaces.
The evacuation was ordered as attention turns to an old community dump site dangerously close to the sea.
The tip could contain explosives, asbestos and other hazardous material, so a protection zone with a 1km radius has been set up for safety purposes while it’s cleared.
Glenn Puna, a crib owner at Bluecliffs and spokesman for the community, said yesterday people were “very stressed”.
“I’m pretty sure anyone who’s given two days’ notice is going to struggle to get things organised in time,” he said.
Puna said there were permanent residents who were already “up in arms” and lawyers had been contacted.
Emergency Management Southland controller Lucy Hicks said work to clear the dump site, which had been used for illegal tipping as recently as 2000, would begin on Saturday and continue for up to three weeks.
Accommodation had been organised in Tūātapere for permanent residents during that time, and people within that category could return home between 6.30pm and 8pm every day.
The evacuation is just the latest disruption for residents who have been living under a state of emergency for four weeks.
A state of emergency was declared at Bluecliffs after three metres of land was lost. Photo / RNZ
During a single day in February, about 3m of land was lost to erosion at the hands of the river.
An effort to cut into the bar to realign the river’s flow had also been unsuccessful, despite emergency management announcing work was complete.
Puna was critical of how the situation had been handled since the state of emergency was called.
He said repeated requests from the community to meet with key parties had fallen on deaf ears prior to a Wednesday meeting with Emergency Management Southland, Environment Southland and Southland District Council.
At an original meeting on February 12, he said residents asked for a rock wall to be built but had their request disregarded.
The unsuccessful attempt at opening the bar in late February had even prompted them to take matters into their own hands.
“A group of us went over with shovels to try to give it a go, but we got forced out by the high tide.
“So we were like, ‘far out, they’ve just walked away’.”
Mayor Rob Scott has indicated managed retreat is the only long-term solution for Bluecliffs residents, but Puna wants to see more fight.
“There’s fear that they’re going to get the dump site cleaned then walk away and not worry about the mouth opening, which would mean that they’re not worried about saving our houses,” he said.
In response to questions from Local Democracy Reporting, Hicks said the cut in the river bar made on February 22 was short-lived due to sea swells pushing gravel and closing the opening.
The job was larger in scale than first anticipated and the material more difficult to move, she said.
A review of the work and assessment of next steps was expected in the next two weeks.
“We were upfront with the community that the success of a cut into the bar was not guaranteed,” Hicks said.
“Given the complex and dynamic environment out there, it was only going to be a short-term mitigation at best, not a long-term solution.”
Suggestions of creating barriers and rock walls appeared straightforward but required detailed engineering input, costing, consenting and time, she said.
“These need to be considered as medium to long-term actions, with more community involvement, and as part of a council’s long-term plans.”
Hicks acknowledged two days’ notice was short for the upcoming evacuation, but said a state of emergency was in place and safety was paramount.
The removal of waste from the dump site follows a successful funding bid by Environment Southland and Southland District Council which saw $1.35 million granted by the Government.
