HOROWHENUA LAKE ACCORD CLEANUP 2013

THE DISGUISED LAKE ACCORD PROCESS

With the Council now seeking an Accord to clean up the Lake local Iwi have now banded together to form a community team to assist in the clean up with Pare Raukawa hapu who have lands on the Hokio Stream. Some members of the Lake Trustees tried to pass the Accord and have it signed as they were in for jobs of course. These Lake Trustees are attempting to do the same again yet will not seek direction from the owners in the Lake. The Mayor of course wants a signing to take place so he can get funding. The local Levin Chronicle will not publish any articles telling the true story of the Lake and how the situation is. Its dog eat dog. Those same Lake Trustees: Marakopa Matakatea, Jonathon Proctor, Robert Warrington were the same Trustees who got the Chairman Eugene Henare to kick an owner out of 2 buildings on the pretext of removing out buildings. Now they want to sack the Chairman and have the Accord signed on a special Sunday meeting to be held at Thompson House 10am Levin. This is against the owners wishes and some Trustees are not even owners: eg Chairman Matt Sword, Jon Proctor, Kelly Tahiwi and Kerry Hori te Pa the secretary?

Five groups have been invited to take part in the Lake Horowhenua Accord but this needs to be extended as even the majority of the 1511 owners have no say nor allowed to voice their opinions and it is their land. The 5 have a different role in the lake's management yet there has been no indication os the management structure; the monetary fund & the planned clean up.

But first of all to start anything the contamination must be stopped entering the Lake.

Larry.N.Mitchell. Finance & Policy Analyst. Larry produces this league table for the 67 local authorities in NZ. It measures economic sustainability and affordability but check it out and you will get a shock at what Horowhenua District Council is doing & now wants to spew more sewerage waste in Shannon but not on their $4m farm they just bought- June 2013??.Larry Mitchell exposed the District Councils blatent spending spree at the Cnr Cambridge / Montgomery St Levin Hall on the 7th July at 2pm in front of a packed hall of 216 rate payers and locals.

Click here to download the 2nd to worst District Council in NZ---yes Horowhenua District Council [OPEN pdf: ]

Lake Horowhenua Trust: The elected representatives of lake's owners 1000+ owners are not even informed or know about this Accord. No owners have seen a Draft plan that came out in 2012. But as at April 2013 the Lake Trustees are under investigation. The lake, along with a 20 metre strip around its edge, is owned by the owners, the majority of which are of the Mauapoko iwi.

Horizons Regional Council:

The environmental regulatory grants consents for stormwater and wastewater disposal. Horizons also carries out water quality monitoring and weed spraying at the lake. HOWEVER they are not monitoring the inlets to the Lake the most important task and basically never have??? But in saying this they are happy that more groups join the Lobby Group and are happy to work with us.

Horowhenua District Council: is the local authority responsible for bylaws that govern the lake,and suposedly keep clean yet they have done little in fact nothing to relieve the problems of the Lake. Blame can not be put on Mayor Duffy as without the likes of Horizons etc, Nathan Guy, DOC these are the ones who must share repsonsibility and they have had many years to support the Council. In all there have been 3 Accords to date and nothing ever happened and the Council are to blame.

Department of Conservation: DOC is responsible for the flora and fauna at the lake but as we have seen thats all thats been done on the Lake. They have re-established native species with Iwi reps on the payroll in and around the lake and the control of pest species.

Lake Horowhenua Domain Board: With representatives of Horowhenua District Council, DOC and the lake trustees, this board manages the lake waters only and the use of the buildings? yet tend to talk about solving issues but has never implemented the clean up process or come up with any plans to rid the sludge in the Lake. They are in fact a dufunct Board that the Crown needs to get rid of as they get paid to meet yet never carry out what even speakers ask for.

MLC: HOROWHENUA LAKE 11 BLOCK- APPLICATION FOR URGENT INJUNCTION: SECTION 19/93

On May 14th 2013 interested parties received a copy of an Accord Draft Plan made up by one Kevin Hill? we were told. No Accord Plan has been seen before and this Draft was given by the Maori Land Court not by the Lake Trust? Those who received this in the mail were directed to comment to the Court by 24th may 2013. REMEMBER no owners have ever seen this Draft nor commented on yet the Council have wanted to sign an Accord for the last 3 months although its longer as they had a hidden accord draft 2012??? again we repeat not one affected owner has been given this copy apart from the Lake Trust and MLC until now?.

AN ACCORD MEETING WITH COUNCIL

A secret meeting ----- On the morning of Thrusday 30th May 2013 the Horowhenua District Council deliberated a meeting of the Lake Trustees and Horizons on the Accord at 7.30am. This meeting was not advertised nor any other owners invoted to the meeting. The discoussion was intended we believe was to get consensus on an Accord that we as owners have no inut and still have zero input. Considering those non owners on this Trust x4 could vote in favour on the Accord if it was a majority vote the take was undertaken not to sign due to the owners again not being consulted. The funny thing is why was it convened at 7.30am on this day.

The Lobby group of Muaupoko and Pare Raukawa met with Horizons this same day yet were not notified by the Lake Trust of their intentions of this meeting today?? Why not or is it that some Trust members are looking for jobs for themselves with the Council. This Group is a joint group of owners and affected tribal affiliates on the stream that affects all. It is ironic that still the Lake Trust meet in these circumstances yet still do not forward a date to meet wioth the owners.

DOMAIN BOARD MEETING Monday 10th June 2013

On this day 10am the Board met yet again. Questions were put by the Lobby group to work together. Further questions were floated on the clean up of why the Iwi reps have not had a plan from Priority to less on the clean up or the Accord. Their reply by Jonathon Proctor was they wish to sign then talk about the plan yet they have had over 5 months and 25 years to formulate. Remember there was an Accord back in 1998, and we believe yet other type accords in 1983 & 1974?. Nothing was ever done and these same parties want another one and still have no plans. So why the holdup; why does the Council wish to lead when they have no money nor to clean the Lake up. Do these iwi reps and council want to drag it out and not clean the sludge out of the lake but rather plan to use funding money to play games for themselves. How long does it take to make a simple decision when some of these members have sat for years yet still make no decisions. The acting Chairman Nathan Murray said there was a monitor in the middle of the Lake? he thought , when the question was put to the Board on why inlets haven't got a monitoring system not even a Seechi disk to check the sediment coming in. They never heard of one? Well how crazy is that--its like having a cup of tea in one hand and a 44 gallon drum in the other with the same cup of tea in it. So much for why nothing is being done to this Lake.

The Lobby Group spoke about going to lobby government but this board decided it wanted to go ahead with signing this Accord. The Lobby Group will lobby the government for funding and now has the farmers, horticulture groups, dairy farmers, as an advisory body on board. The Domain Board is a defunct Board who does nothing and cannot even get proper leases so no monies for 2013 from leases. There accounts on rentals are zero 2013 as they cannot even decide how to obtain let alone read lease agreements. If you read their minutes check the input from the Iwi reps and you will read how useless they are............ [ Domain minutes ] & CHECK [ Manawatu Standard ] report of the Domain doing nothing since the last 1998 Accord floundered. Now check the Accord & then ask yourself is the Lake sludge addressed? below in the footer.

From Fairfax: Horowhenua Mail 13th June 2013

The above you can see how even the Domain Board does not read their history or their minutes and statements from those speakers who are only allowed 5 minutes to speak. Check to see what speakers ask and say then what is implemented by the Domain Board.

PROPOSED PLAN CLEANUP

The mayor said to the Evening Standard in April 2013 it would take 20 years to clean the Lake?? but wants to sign an Accord to access Central Govt funding as he has run out of cash after spending $4m of ratepayer money on a farm in Shannon.

The problem is the toxic sediment on the bottom of the Lake that must be removed and the following is how this can be achieved according to the budget provided. Over the decades, heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals--both municipal and industrial wastes and herbicides and pesticides from farm runoff--have mixed with the particles of rock, soil, and decomposing items in the Lake. Little attention has been paid to the toxics hiding in the mud on the bottom. The obvious first priority was stopping the discharge of new contaminants.

COSTS:

Will the required budget be enough to dredge the whole lake with those responsible eg. Council, Horizons DOC, Govt grants budgeting the cleanup as nothing has been mentioned? Would dredging the hot spots first be the better solution to start, then rechecked thus working within the required budget? Where to start first and end, noting the main inlets and outlet being the Hokio Stream.

This whole process could be accomplished using owners and overseen by the necessary authorities. It would also be a workable business for the owners to accomplish the same in other contaminated parts of NEW Zealand as we have a duty to our tipuna. This is another reason why us owners need to play their role in the Accord process and not be left out.

It has been 62 years that Horowhenua Lake has had sediment, sewerage and contaminants from dairy & horticulture in this Lake ? The Lake is choked with weed, sediment and manures from horticulture and dairy farm run offs account for 50% of the water runoff and this Lake is No 107 of a total 114 most contaminated Lakes in NZ by the Ministry of the Environment. Once rich in food sources from mussels to kakahi it has now been reduced to a contaminated mess.

Horizons have studied the fish species in the Lake but this is not the problem. The problem is the Lake is a giant toilet that someone forgot to flush. The Council do not care as they can spend all sorts on removing the weed etc which will do nothing. The real problem is to remove the sludge which is easy but even Max Gibbs the NIWA analyst could not even mention. To us its a rush job of who can get the work and blow it out to 25 years??? and then maybe never.
The blame is on all Maori not thinking and getting their act together. Too much bickering and nothing being achieved. Disgraceful.

All are too blame