Living with the Changing Tides

The quick poll relating to the assets/areas that need protecting is ridiculous, because it only provides four possible answers and does not allow people to answer by area. I would say that private property protection should rank the lowest at Waihi Beach, but that may not be the case in other areas. There has been a Minister's decision at Waihi Beach that stated that the existing rock revetment is not a sustainable option. Further a condition was imposed to ensure that council undertook timely investigations to find an alternative. Instead, council has done nothing about the setback rules and sat and watched as bigger and more expensive properties are built at Waihi Beach, creating an even larger problem. Council should look at that decision and the recent King Salmon decision and not try to water down Waihi Beach's significant coastal erosion problems in a district wide policy. The policy should be split by area. There is no one size fits all for the district.

This is not the first time that the community of Waihi Beach in particular has been asked their opinion on the best option to deal with coastal erosion. When previously asked, the preferred option was "managed retreat". This option although sounding onerous actually meant that beachfront property owners and users of the beach and dunes were forced to consider any likely effects of..inappropriate development and use... and to implement measures that were sustainable as best they could, this would have included working with coast care groups etc.
What actually happened was that the generally more wealthy beachfront owners bullied the Council into submitting to their wish for a seawall with threats of litigation. The subsequent Environment Court action went the same way with however the Judge putting a time limit on the Council to come up with a sustainable option. Kind of a Pontius Pilate type judgement when the right decision was unpalatable, and may have caused "rattling of the teacups in Remuera".
It is interesting that at a recent Waihi Beach Community Board meeting the need to address this Environment Court decision was brought up as the time for a better option is almost here. Even more interestingly one of the Councillors present commented that there was a need to "clarify" the Court's decision.......you can see where this is going....
I have no doubt that the same sort of scenario will unfold again....beachfront property owners welding legal power forcing the Council to buckle at the knees again...only this time the ratepayers in general will probably be forced into paying the cost of protecting the private development and for whatever futile "coastal armouring' is proposed.
Climate change and any sea level rise has to be dealt with in an environmentally and sustainably responsible way....and if protection of private property is going to part of that we need to come up with long term options and not rush into options that appease the few.

From my observations over 20 yrs coastal erosion with in Tauranga Harbour which has no doubt been going on before climate change was blamed on everything. Much of the silt from erosion not only goes out but also comes up with the incoming tides thus adding to the silting and mangrove problems. Quite often the water in an estuary is a lot more discoloured coming in than going out. Some of this gets dropped therefore adding to the build up of silt and providing areas for mangrove growth.
Re changing tides. Climate change has been going on since the earth was formed and is not likely to stop in a miniscual 100 yrs. As for trying to plan for this seems to be an exercise in futility and an excuse for another load of senseless job creation for those who are not able to do anything productive. The REAL problem is population expansion one which no one seems to be capable of talking about. Man has been so good at medicine and health that we are now going to destroy ourselves by this means. In 1930 we had about 2million people on earth now about 7.5million in 80 yrs. A 3.75 increase, so in another 80 yrs we could have 28 million so all our worries about climate and sea rising pale into insignifcance and prove that we are wasting time and money on things that have been going on for centuries.
Go back and read what Al Gore said in 1990 re " climate warming". He told us then that in 20 years the sea would have risen significantly, the poles would almost have gone and from this he became a multi millionaire.

Bevin Bodmin
147 Matahui Rd
Katikati

Recent research* says the sea level is rising at 1.9mm/year (190 mm in a century - NOT 1m) so there is nothing at all to be concerned about and no reason to waste ratepayer money on this topic.
This research paper confirms the "local" data as the rise for the last century as measured in Auckland was 190mm.

* http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818113002750#f0015

As a water front resident at Pukehina Beach and having been a professional mariner working on the sea for the last 40 years, I am interested in keeping in touch with the Coastal Erosion situation.

I have seen the effects of nature change our coast lines for many years and feel that it is not only nature that we have to be mindful of.

At Pukehina, we enjoy a less restricted access to the beach for quad bikes and this is adhered to by the locals but unfortunately the exception is that we have many visiting holiday people who don't seem to understand the fragile nature of our dunes and we see crazy incidents of not only quad bikes, but 2 wheeler motor cross riders, and now also what are called side by side farm vehicles, towing trailers with disregard for the beach users, children and fishermen, what next, 4 wheel drive SVU's, hope not.

I think we need to get all users onto the same page and read the guide lines of quad bike beach use, surely we will all benefit and help protect our sand dunes.

Capt Paul