Storm water breaches the Alpha Reserve storage pond again and floods Bullock Creek. 17th August 21

This is the second time within a week.

After moderate rain, the storm water pond directly above the spring fed headwaters of Bullock Creek overflowed into Fish and Game’s land, through the Wetland and into Bullock Creek.

On both occasions, the storm water was full of silt and sediment and turned the creek a muddy brown. On the 12thAugust, the water was particularly dirty and it appears that could be due to some of the storm water originating from earthworks or development happening above the Alpha subdivision. This is being investigated by QLDC.

The turbidity, sediment or silt in the creek not only discolours the water but also settles onto the gravels which is not good for the trout spawning areas or the overall ecology.

We have uploaded photos and video of the flooding and subsequent damage to the wetlands to our website gallery. This includes edited video from councillor Quentin Smith who visited the site at 10pm on 16th August when the overflow was at its peak –the video is a disturbing record of how just how bad it was.

Coming just five weeks after the last storm water overflow, this repeated contamination of the wetlands and creek is intensely annoying and frustrating.

As before, the two Triton arches (underground storm water retention tanks/sumps installed by the developer at the bottom of the Alpha Series subdivision) were both completely full. Once again, the pump that QLDC put in to transfer excess storm water out of the pond and into the tanks was not operating.

FOBC has taken this up directly with QLDC, seeking answers to what happened, why and what council is doing to provide solutions. This continuing pollution of Wanaka’s iconic spring-fed water way cannot continue.

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