Projects set to receive $1m
ECO Fund assessment panel chairman Alan Somerville said the community effort and commitment was inspiring.
The fund was oversubscribed and some very good projects missed out on funding.
Of the original 69 applicants this year seeking a total $2.87 million, 28 were shortlisted, which would receive $1,059,178
The funding supported community-driven projects, which protected, enhanced and promoted Otago's environment, Cr Somerville said.
This year the fund had supported a wide range of projects: control of wilding conifers, sycamores and willows, rabbits and predators; weed clearance and native planting; programmes to upskill volunteers in trapping and monitoring; and helping schools with restoration projects.
"We've funded groups with a proven track record, but also some first-time applicants."
Three of the projects are in Clutha, five in Central Otago, 10 in Dunedin, eight in Queenstown Lakes and one each in Waitaki and North Otago.
Four large-scale biodiversity projects share $450,000, nine general projects share $348,001, three sustained rabbit management projects share $100,000, seven biodiversity enhancement projects on protected private land share $99,757, one project for critical source area management on private land gets $15,000 and four projects for weed removal and revegetation share $46,420.— APL
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
ORC Modifying Its Shotover Testing Regime
Otago Regional Council is modifying its testing programme at the Queenstown Lakes District Council owned and operated Shotover Wastewater Treatment Plant near Queenstown with water testing and plant site visits moving from weekly to monthly. This decision balances the need to ensure a robust monitoring programme which provides assurance to the people of Queenstown and downstream from the discharge, with the need to ensure prudent financial management, where appropriate monitoring and oversight is already in place. There will still be weekly water testing of the Kawarau River downstream of the treatment plant site and monthly on-site visits and auditing of the plant. Test results will continue to be made public, says ORC's General Manager Environmental Delivery, Joanna Gilroy. 'Monitoring of compliance on site with the Enforcement Order and consents remains a high priority for ORC.' 'We have confidence in the combination of the sampling required under the Enforcement Order, our continued weekly sampling of the Kawarau at our Chard Road monitoring site plus our continued monthly full site sampling and audits at the plant.' 'This monitoring regime will maintain the high standard expected,' she says. All the results from the independent lab will continue to be made public and ORC will maintain on-site visits once a month and respond to any complaints, Ms Gilroy says. Staff will continue to audit sample results and information supplied to Council to ensure compliance. Monthly sampling, or sampling after any incident, will continue from the established sites; below. Upstream entirely of the Shotover WWTP and ponds (before the SH6 bridge) Final discharge post-UV treatment Discharge to the river (at the last realistic and safe point) Approximately 200 metres downstream Upstream of Kawarau River Downstream of Kawarau River (past Shotover river) ORC will also continue to monitor the Kawarau River at Chard Road site once a week. 'These sites have been chosen so that any impacts on the Shotover and Kawarau can be monitored. Samples will be taken by ORC staff in line with previous sampling processes and the results will still be analysed at an independent laboratory,' she says. Once results have been returned to ORC from the lab and checked by staff, they will continue to be uploaded to ORC's Shotover web site. Ms Gilroy notes the results may not be uploaded on the web site until 10 or more days after the sample is taken, due to lab processing times and the need to consider whether the results may be required to be used as evidence in the future. Any results and data shown will not give any indication of compliance status, any environmental effect or any potential compliance action, she says. Background What monitoring has ORC been doing of the site since before April 2025? ORC has been regularly undertaking testing to monitor compliance with consented limits and conditions. This occurred at a standard series of locations to enable trend data to be collected. Testing included investigation of E. coli – Escherichia coli, TBOD – Total Biochemical Oxygen Demand, TN – Total Nitrogen, and TSS – Total Suspended Solids. The samples were analysed based on consents parameters, and, where appropriate, other parameters used to detect wastewater. Sampling is completed by ORC staff in line with sampling procedures and analysed in an independent lab. From 7 April 2025 a new set of standardised sampling locations were set up to specifically monitor the discharge on site. These sites will be sampled weekly until 18 August, and will then move to monthly, along with a monthly site inspection. What monitoring is happening at the Shotover site from August ? After 18 August, ORC will be doing monthly testing on site to monitor compliance with consented limits and conditions and the Enforcement Order rather than weekly. This will happen at the standard series of locations to enable trend data to continue to be collected. Testing will include investigation of E. coli – Escherichia coli, TBOD – Total Biochemical Oxygen Demand, TN – Total Nitrogen, and TSS – Total Suspended Solids. Will ORC continue the current monitoring of the site under the Enforcement Order ? Yes. Under the Enforcement Order, QLDC is required to undertake monitoring on site. ORC will audit this monitoring and the results regularly to ensure that they are compliant and to check for any impacts on waterways. These results will continue to be supplied on this webpage. ORC will continue to monitor the Kawarau River at Chard Road State of the Environment Monitoring site once a week to ensure the community has access to frequent monitoring results and to continue to provide information to downstream water users. What information did ORC base its decision on to change the monitoring approach? With the Enforcement Order in place, as well as the monitoring required under the resource consent, QLDC are now required to undertake a wide range of monitoring and supply these results to ORC. ORC staff have reviewed what QLDC are required to do under their Enforcement Order; what the results of ORC's monitoring programme to date have shown and balanced this against the continued need to provide information and confidence to the public. With this in the mind the monitoring for the site has changed to monthly compliance sampling on site and the continuation of weekly monitoring of the Kawarau River at Chard Road will continue. Will the monitoring approach change again? Potentially. The approach to monitoring will be reconsidered once any decision is reached on the consent, or if there are impacts on the environment or when upgrades are made at the site.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
New book-a-seat bus service ‘unreliable': residents
Mosgiel residents and frequent bus-users (from left) Becky Campbell, Vicki Clinch, Theo Campbell, 3, Arthur Guthrie, 2, Kate Guthrie and 9-week-old Maeve Guthrie in the pram pause on their way to catch the Orbus On Demand service home. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON Mosgiel residents are being left high and dry thanks to the botched rollout of a new on-demand bus system, a regular user of the service says. At the end of June, the Orbus on-demand service was rolled out where users book a spot on the bus to request a ride. It replaced the previous loop service, which ran once every 40 minutes on weekdays. But Mosgiel resident and frequent bus user Becky Campbell said the rollout of the new service had been botched, leaving people frustrated by faults and cancellations. The Otago Regional Council acknowledged the rollout had come with challenges, but said the system was new to the council as well and it was working hard to iron out the teething issues. Mrs Campbell said the new service had led to many people giving up on using the service altogether. "One woman said it's just too unreliable. Another man has had to buy a mobility scooter because it's just impossible for him to organise getting on to the service." Mrs Campbell said complications with the system had made her morning kindergarten drop-offs a challenge. "We are always panicked, because we don't know if we're going to make it on time to pick the kids up after kindergarten." Mrs Campbell's friend, Kate Guthrie, said there had been cases of both of them attempting to book the bus, but one of them receiving the message it was booked out. "When you order the bus, it only picks one person at a time — 22 seats just for you." They said they would like to see a return to the regular loop circuit, as it was more reliable, and easier for Mosgiel's elderly residents to use. ORC implementation lead for transport Julian Phillips said there were operational challenges and the system was new to everyone. "We appreciate the change is a big one and we are currently planning further community engagement and looking at ways we can assist all Mosgiel residents to use the service." He said one adjustment for the service had already been made on July 21, which had led to a reduction in cancelled bookings. There was room for further tweaks to the system and he was keen to hear feedback. "We want all Mosgiel residents to feel enabled to use the service. We would love anyone who hasn't tried the service to give it a go by downloading the app, signing up and making a booking, or booking over the phone."
Otago Daily Times
06-08-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Excavating tip may need military help: Beca
Excavating a former Dunedin tip may need military supervision after rumours a wax-wrapped box of machine guns and ammunition were found there. The suggestion comes from a review of investigations into the historic landfill under Kettle Park for the Dunedin City Council by consultancy Beca. The release of the review comes after the city council put about $38 million in its 2025-34 plan for the remediation of the former landfill. The review, from November last year, was released this month by the Otago Regional Council under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (Lgoima). Anecdotal evidence suggested "a wax-wrapped box of machine guns and ammunition from World War 2" was found buried next to the Dunedin Ice Stadium. The Ocean Beach army battery and firing range were also nearby, the Beca review said. Although explorations to date had failed to turn anything up, they recommended a desktop exercise be undertaken in order to better understand the site's use by the New Zealand military, the consultants said. "Remaining risk could be managed with appropriate procedures and working alongside New Zealand military or specialist third-party suppliers to control and manage the disturbance and disposal." The city council is due to re-visit options to clean up the historic landfill along the St Clair-St Kilda coast before the end of the month. For that reason the regional council declined to release a report entitled, "Draft Kettle Park — Review of Assessment of Remedial Options". That report was due to be presented to the city council on August 26 and would be made public at that time, the regional council said. However, another Beca review from late last year released by the regional council said the city council needed to better understand the impact on public access, long-term maintenance and potential changes to wildlife habitat of its forthcoming plan to deal with the toxic waste beneath Kettle Park. Beca reviewed three options put forward to address the threats to the environment and public posed by the historic landfill — which operated from around 1900 to the early 1950s and is now under threat from coastal erosion. A Beca senior associate said the three options provided "different levels and durations of protection". They said all three remediation options were "generally sound" but recommended further work on "long-term sustainability, structural design to prevent future outflanking and the logistics of extensive waste removal". "Attention to maintenance, ecological impacts and the ability to adapt to future sea-level rise will also be critical to the success of these interventions," the senior associate said. "Public access, long-term maintenance and potential habitat changes should be further explored." The three options reviewed were using "geosynthetic containers" as reinforcements, waste removal along with "dune reprofiling" or waste removal and a "backstop wall", or rock armouring. Beca said the three options, advanced in 2023 by Tonkin + Taylor, were developed in order to align with the city council's St Clair-St Kilda coastal plan. Accordingly, Beca assumed there was to be no further investigation of alternative options. Geosynthetic containers offered "an efficient and relatively quick solution" for around 20 years, but could be overtopped by waves in a one-in-10-year storm, which could result in sand dune material that contained contaminants being spilled. The option of waste removal and reprofiling the dunes with clean sand was advanced with the suggestion that removing waste material up to 50m inland from the beach could be required. Such extensive excavation, Beca said, could disturb neighbouring areas and measures would be required to prevent environmental contamination. The review also said "empirical evidence" should be provided to show the new sand dunes would withstand the erosion and storms predicted with climate change. Waste removal and the installation of rock armouring would reasonably provide a 50-year lifespan for the intervention, the review said. "And the provision for future adaptation as a conventional seawall is sensible." However, the review also noted the option did not include a specific plan to prevent coastal processes from "outflanking" the the rock wall. Further, although rock walls typically offered long-term protection, once exposed they would "alter the coastal landscape and potentially impact local ecosystems", the consultants said. City councillors discussed coastal hazards at Kettle Park and the St Clair and St Kilda beaches behind closed doors on Tuesday.
