Our friends at WAI Wānaka work tirelessly for local water health and educating the community about water health and quality issues such as stormwater run off, ecosystem monitoring and water pollution events.

Their Adopt A Drain program aims to educate and provide local groups, businesses and households the opportunity to ‘adopt a drain’ in the name of reducing stormwater pollution in our local area. The reality is that drains are waterways just like streams are, and anything that goes down a drain ends up in our streams, rivers and lakes; pollutants include chemical cleaners, sediment, pesticides and heavy metals and pathogens like E.coli.

We appreciate the work of WAI and know how important it is to protect our waterways, such as those found along the Bullock Creek environs, for the benefit of the ecosystem as a whole and for us humans within the larger ecosystem, being able to enjoy and care for our waterways for generations to come.

Bullock Creek

To check out and support the work of WAI Wānaka, check out the following links:

• WAI Wānaka

• Adopt A Drain program

• Adopt A Drain newsletter

• WAI Wānaka newsletter

• WAI Wānaka facebook page

You can do your bit by:

• Reporting water pollution to Otago Regional Council- 24/7 hotline 0800 800 033 or complete the Report Pollution form on their website

• Wash your car on the lawn, not on the road

• Get involved in local water health initiatives like our weekly wetland restoration volunteer days at Bullock Creek or events regularly run by WAI focusing on education, clean-ups and water quality monitoring

• Donate to FOBC and WAI to help us continue our important mahi

• Check out Otago Catchment Community Inc who help support a network of catchment groups in our broader region, including generously funding some of our work here at FOBC

• Check out Otago Regional Council for everything you need to know about water care

References

https://niwa.co.nz/freshwater/stormwater-management/stormwater-introduction

https://waiwanaka.nz/actions/our-drains-are-streams/

https://waiwanaka.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Summary-of-M.-Vermeulens-work.pdf

Fish on Drains

The marking of stormwater drains with fish symbols in Wanaka was originally initiated by Touchstone, an organisation concerned to keep the waters of our lakes and streams free from pollution. Check out their website for further information.

Paul van Klink, wearing both his Friends of Bullock Creek and Fish and Game hats is keen to continue the Touchstone project in the Bullock Creek catchment. Together with help from Chris Arbuckle from Touchstone who had the metal fish & bird silhouettes manufactured, the Wanaka Community Workshop who helped Paul with a drill press and Wai Wanaka who have assisted with the production of an “Adopt a Drain” leaflet, Paul will be working his way downstream to engage Bullock Creek neighbours in the FOBC project and to raise awareness of the importance of keeping pollution out of Wanaka stormwater drains. Hopefully the permanent labels on the street drains will be a reminder to everyone that all the water that enters the stormwater drains in Wanaka ends up in either Bullock Creek , other creeks and then Lake Wanaka.....so it’s in everyone’s interest to keep drains free of pollutants as much as possible.

The FOBC Fish on Drains project kicked off on Wednesday evening 30 Aug around 5 pm in Stone St adjacent the Wetlands. It was great to meet and chat with our BC neighbours along the way. During September & October we will be continue our journey downstream to Tenby Streets, Redwood Lane and Sycamore Place.

The marking of stormwater drains with a “Fish” in and around Wanaka was originally an initiative of Chris Arbuckle from Touchstone to heighten public awareness of where our “waste water” ends up! Since then Wai Wanaka has been working with various community groups around the Upper Clutha for their Adopt a Drain project. Our friends from Wai Wanaka have produced a neat brochure explaining the importance of stormwater drains being for rainwater only and will be attending with FOBC during our marking of stormwater drains.

As part of our Bullock Creek Neighbours project, our personal meet and greet will commence this week (30 Aug) in Stone St, immediately adjacent the wetlands and we’ll slowly be working our way downstream during the spring and summer months. We are proposing to pop-in to see our BC neighbours, early evening between 5 - 6pm. Please feel free to come out and see us putting a fish on your street drains and have a chat with us.