Water race consigned to past as outdated

Low water levels and algae in the Ruamahanga River at Te Ore Ore, Masterton.

Closure of the Te Ore Ore water race is now a fait accompli and the finger has been pointed at the management of Ruamahanga River as being one of the primary causes.

On Wednesday Masterton District councillors went through the motions of formally voting the 100-year-old water race out of existence after agreement with most users had been reached that maintaining the race was no longer financially viable.

Identified as the major cause for the closure was degradation of the river bed which had dropped by an estimated 1.5m to 2m in the stretch of the river from Opaki to Te Ore Ore and at this week's council meeting questions were asked over river management.

Councillor Jonathan Hooker said he couldn't "help but feel the work done in the river, and the metal extraction" had contributed to the decline.

Mr Hooker said he had a family member who was a freshwater fisherman and on talking to him he understood "Fish and Game are looking at what is happening there".

"I just have to wonder about the management of the river in that area over many years," he said.

Councillor David Holmes, whose property borders the Ruamahanga River at Lees Pakaraka Rd, said degradation of the river there has dropped the river bed by a metre.

"We now have to cut a channel to get the water out to the paddocks."

Mr Holmes said contractors had taken "a hell of a lot of metal" out of the river over many years and river management now meant metal was moving further and further south.

He said it was acknowledged water races were very inefficient and that it is going to be interesting to discover how the Wairarapa as a whole deals with that problem.

Te Ore Ore was a very small scheme in comparison with others including Taratahi in the Carterton district and the Moroa Scheme in South Wairarapa.

During the public forum section of the council meeting Settlement Rd farmer Cameron Stuart told councillors he "sadly" had to support closure of the water race as future costs of trying to keep it would be prohibitive. He too spoke of the riverbed level dropping and had his "theories" as to the cause.

Ripping had meant "the metal has gone", Mr Stuart said.

He said he had attempted to build up the level using boulders to allow water to flow into the race but this had not been viable and 500m upstream machinery was working at taking metal out.