Tongariro Power Scheme

TRM apologises for the lack of exciting fishy updates leading into Easter.

According to GNS Science, the earthquakes are “quite different in appearance” compared to volcanic tremors traditionally seen at Ruapehu. 

“While the earthquakes represent something new at Ruapehu, and we are working on understanding the details of the processes driving them, they are not thought to pose any concerns for eruptive activity.”  (A full report on the recent earthquakes is below.)

Anglers report the Tongariro River trout fishing has been so confused lately with Mt. Ruapehu rumbling and spooking all the trout, so TRM had to find other juicy controversial stuff to keep inmates interested. It was not difficult.

Although the trout have not been interviewed, it is obvious they feel the series of small earthquakes and get spooked so easily. The lull has given TRM inmates more time, particularly during happy hour, to ponder and question another even larger hydro scheme that threatens other fishing rivers – the Onslow proposal?

Freshwater anglers can be excused for being tongue-in-cheek cynical about any consultants’ recommendations in the recent debate about the now cancelled (?) “Onslow” pumped hydro scheme down in the deep south, with their projected estimated cost of somewhere between $8 to $28 Billion (historically, we all know they will usually cost double the initial estimates). The huge cost variance depends on how much they propose to enlarge Lake Onslow? The lake is designed to serve as a battery to help protect against hydro-electrical shortages and create more stability.

Tongariro anglers have experienced all the false promises and persevered with many similar vague plans over sixty years ago. Back then their protests and concerns about the potential for environmental damage were largely ignored. But they did not have the awesome power of social media to warn the peasants…

The massive proposed Onslow budgets have to be weighed against the huge efficiency loss in transmission to the bulk of customers north of the Bombay Hills and compared to the existing Huntly Power Station in a far more convenient location located on about 300 years (give or take a month or two) of existing coal supply, but that might not have been included in their brief.

Sadly, the recommendations of many of these “independent” expert Government consultants cannot be trusted as they show allegiance to the government department or council that hired them. The feasibility study into the project has cost an eye-wateing $90 million. (For that preliminary cost, perhaps they should have created another MOW?)

Or it might be more viable and economical to review a cheaper option and extend and finish the original Tongariro scheme that involved another dam at the Pillars of Hercules? It is the negative environmental effects on trout (& salmon) fishing that concerns anglers. Now, sixty years later, anglers’ concerns should be much more respected and should have much more political influence, as now they directly represent the sharp end of one of NZ’s biggest industries – Tourism!

Tongariro anglers were promised so much in the massive Central Plateau plumbing scheme. i.e. Tongariro river anglers are still waiting for the dredge that was going to be positioned on the delta to maintain the depth and prevent the river from silting up and keep the river flowing and extending the delta into Lake Taupo. We understand the dredge actually arrived and was used to excavate the Lake Otamangakau canals before being shipped to Twizel and then sold off to Malaysia. Since then Lake Taupo continues to create a hydro dam at the mouth of the river and has significantly increased aggradation and the dangers of flooding Turangi. True!

i.e. TRM was developed on Taupahi Road which was part of the original Taupahi village over one hundred years ago. Now Taupo District Council and Waikato Regional Council’s expensive independent expert consultants advise that TRM is now located in a “flood hazard zone”. (They can now claim it could be the result of global warming – as likely as daylight saving?) That is one of the minor side effects of maintaining higher lake levels to spin the turbines to feed eight more hydropower stations down the Waikato River.

Environmental values

TRM’s inmates’ committee advise us that (from the official blurb) In Phase 1 of the Onslow project, ecologists and scientists undertook desktop studies and fieldwork to identify the species and habitats in the lake area. They also began looking at ways to offset, compensate and mitigate the likely environmental effects if the scheme was to go ahead.

This research aimed to help understand the:

• species in the lake and their habitats (studied by NIWA, Cawthron Institute, University of Otago, Fish & Game)
• water quality (studied by NIWA)
• species and their habitats around the lake (studied by the Department of Conservation, Wildlands)
• local lizard populations (studied by herpetologists).

The ecology of the area is important to mana whenua, and the likely environmental effects identified through this work are being considered as they affect cultural values. But what about anglers’ cultural values?

At this stage the original challenging post that we were going to refer to, was censored – this has happened before with any controversial blogs that might question Government proposals. TRM was advised that: “This block has encountered an error and cannot be previewed.” How strange?

So we leave it to your imagination as to who would want to hack and edit a TRM blog… Strange times…

So perhaps it is appropriate to review one of the original “Think Big” hydro schemes from sixty years ago.

The point for anglers to consider is that under the present Resource Management Consent system they should never be allowed to get away with such permanent environmental damage to the natural resource in what was once termed as our National Park, which was traded off as part of the treaty settlement process. Or the $ value may be worth more by planting for carbon credits?

So many of the promises made that were conditional upon consent have been denied and ignored so sixty years later we are all paying for it. Was it worth it? You be the judge.

After looking back at the Tongariro Hydro scheme some sixty years later, after considering all the broken promises, after disregarding the conditions of the consent, anglers cannot be blamed for being so suspicious

News Report: Some minor earthquake activity is being observed at Mt Ruapehu.

GeoNet reports that in addition to a recent drop in lake temperature, in recent weeks Ruapehu has experienced some minor earthquake activity.

“Although the nature of the earthquakes is quite uncommon for Ruapehu, our analyses since our last bulletin do not raise any concerns,” says a GeoNet spokesperson.

“Other monitored parameters have not changed since last week’s bulletin, and volcanic activity remains low. The Volcanic Alert Level remains at 1 and the Aviation Colour Code at Green.

“In early March 2024, we first observed an uncommon style of small earthquakes at Ruapehu. Subsequent re-examination of seismic data has revealed those earthquakes commenced at least as early as mid-February.”

GeoNet says the earthquakes are small and were initially difficult to identify without careful examination of the data as they are uncommon at Ruapehu and only the larger examples are detected by our automatic systems.

Over the last month, GeoNet has seen a maximum of six of these earthquakes a day, and on many days none at all.

Each earthquake consists of up to about 10 minutes of ground shaking, and is composed of a number of similar sub-events.

“While we are able to determine a location for some of the larger examples, the small size and style of the activity means our locations, especially depth, are quite uncertain.

“However, as they are recorded only by monitoring stations on the upper part of the volcano, we speculate that they originate near the summit area of the volcano within a few kilometres’ depth beneath the surface.”

As the earthquakes do not typically last more than 10 minutes, they do not constitute volcanic tremor, and that remains low.

The earthquakes are also quite different in appearance from volcanic tremor traditionally seen at Ruapehu.

“While the earthquakes represent something new at Ruapehu, and we are working on understanding the details of the processes driving them, they are not thought to pose any concerns for eruptive activity,” says GeoNet.

“Other monitored parameters have shown no recent changes. The temperature of Te Wai ā-moe (Crater Lake) is now relatively stable at about 24 ºC, recent observations of the lake recognised nothing unusual, gas emissions from Ruapehu remain moderate, and volcanic tremor is low.

“Monitoring indicators remain consistent with a low level of volcanic activity. As a result, the Volcanic Alert Level remains at 1. The Aviation Colour Code remains Green.