Minutes of Cyclone Recovery Committee - Wednesday, 16 August 2023

1. Welcome/Karakia /Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and Councillor Jerf van Beek opened with a prayer.

2. Conflict of interest declarations

Councillors Xan Harding and Jerf van Beek declared an interest in item 4, as holders of expired irrigation consents operating under section 124 of the Resource Management Act 1991.

There were no conflicts of interest declared.

3. Confirmation of Minutes of the Cyclone Recovery Committee meeting held on 21 June 2023

CRCCC21/23

Resolution

Minutes of the Cyclone Recovery Committee meeting held on Wednesday, 21 June 2023, a copy having been circulated prior to the meeting, were taken as read and confirmed as a true and correct record.

Mackintosh/van Beek

CARRIED

Policy and Regulation work programmes

Katrina Bruton introduced the item, which she took as read. Queries and discussions covered:

· TANK Plan Change rules 4 and 5 will not apply to cyclone affected land this year, however landowners are being encouraged to register their landuse with Council in anticipation of those rules coming into force in future and consents being required.

· Holders of expired Heretaunga Plains water take consents with applications on hold are being informed of the actual and reasonable use assessment so they can amend their consents to align with the TANK plan change rules if they wish, for the renewal process. Where there is no data available, there is crop water requirements data that can be used.

· The first edition of the Regional Recovery Plan, pulled together by the Regional Recovery Agency from the locality plans and Environmental Resilience Plan, was been submitted to the Cyclone Recovery Unit, which has requested an Action Plan – structured into Restoration (phase 1), Recovery, Reconstruction. The second edition will be pulled together, again by the Regional Recovery Agency, and be a reconciliation of what’s been done and what still needs to be done, including funding requirements – for the incoming government.

· A timetable for TANK plan change mediation is being set currently and it is expected mediation will take at least a year.

· The second edition of the Environmental Resilience Plan will be an HBRC internal facing document to transition, through the Long Term Plan, the organisation’s work from recovery to resilience.

Tania Hopmans arrived at 9.43am

· Freshwater quality measures are being re-baselined for future planning processes.

· Freshwater Farm Plans will be required in HB in 2025.

· TANK Plan implementation will be a focus for the Long Term Plan.

CRCCC22/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Policy and Regulation work programmes staff report.

Ormsby/Eden

CARRIED

Biodiversity Hawke's Bay presentation

Debbie Monahan, General Manager, Charles Dougherty, Chair, and Bruce Wills, Strategy Stewardship Chair, delivered a presentation about Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay (BHB) and their work.

· BHB is a community-led organisation established to work with, and on behalf of the community to deliver on the objectives of the Hawke’s Bay Biodiversity Strategy 2015-2050 by promoting biodiversity projects, making connections to funding and providing administrative support.

· Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay is able to deliver cost effective engagement in areas important to Council especially in light of the National Policy Statement Biodiversity.

· Many successful projects include the Maraetotara Tree (Trust) Restoration Project, Tukipo Catchment Care Group Ecosystem Priority Trapping, Central Hawkes Bay Forest & Bird – Otaia Bush restoration, Cape Sanctuary – Rough Block Restoration project and Okawa Stream restoration – Sedge planting to stabilise stream reserve banks.

CRCCC23/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Biodiversity Hawke's Bay presentation.

Williams/Hokianga

CARRIED

HBRC Recovery update

Nic Pete introduced the item, noting that it has been over 6 months since the cyclone.

Councillor Thompson Hokianga left the meeting at 10:36 am

· Land categorisation process utilised independent engineering advice, which was peer reviewed and reviewed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The process of categorisation involves technical and engineering assessments, drawing not only on expert advice but also personal experiences, photos, videos and social media posts of the event - to establish the levels of risk to life and potential mitigation options. The Regional Council process of land categorisation needs to finish by end of September so TAs can initiate their buyout processes.

· The buyout, by the City and District councils, is voluntary. Land interests are not affected – the property right is what will be purchased.

· Whenua Māori processes are being led by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

· Category 3 land may be able to be used for primary production.

· Potential for properties in category 2A to move into 3 or 1. Wairoa classic example – process by community to look at flood mitigation scheme for 2As.

· Landowners do have opportunities to query their land classification and many (at least 200) have. Equally there are those in the community who just want clarity so they can move on, knowing what they can do.

· Ultimate decisions on land categorisation lie with the Chief Executive and will have Legal sign-off based on technical and engineering assessments of risk to life and whether the risks can be mitigated.

· Wairoa process under the umbrella of the tripartite of WDC, Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa and HBRC initially looking at all the potential options and then whittling those down with the community.

· Methodical and technical approach being taken to assess silt deposition. River surveys are being undertaken across the region to assess gravel and silt deposition and to date residual risk has been assessed as not being material. Work will be prioritised based on the level of risk.

· Local government residential silt funds have been fully allocated across the councils to reimburse councils for the clean-up work carried out and are predicted to run out by the end of September. In discussions with DIA about funding to continue to collect silt from commercial operators up until June next year and a paper with a proposal has gone to government.

CRCCC24/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the HBRC recovery update.

Harding/van Beek

CARRIED

The meeting adjourned at 11.21am and reconvened at 11.30am.

Recovery updates from central government

· Central government Order in Council processes continue with the current tranche (5) intended to be in effect by 25 September.

CRCCC25/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Recovery updates from central government.

Mackintosh/van Beek

CARRIED

Nature-based solutions - verbal update

Anna Madarasz-Smith introduced the item and provided an update on nature-based solutions which covered:

· funding offered by MfE for nature-based solutions to resilience planning

· Two successful applications from HBRC for feasibility studies in upper Tukituki and Heretaunga Plains looking at a range of nature-based solutions to keep water in the catchment for longer and ‘flatten the curve’.

· Working at a national level with other regional councils that received the funding to get economies of scale and increase the body of knowledge for New Zealand as a whole by ensuring against double-ups .

· The study will use modelling to determine whether certain solutions are feasible to give us a toolbox – future work will then be required to see what can be implemented at catchment or sub-catchment scale and how.

· Some options are being modelled as part of the scheme reviews as well, and will feed into the resilience planning work where possible.

· Iwi Māori have been invited to be on the oversight group along with HDC, Environment HB and HBRC. NIWA will be involved in the working group

CRCCC26/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Nature-based solutions verbal update.

Siers/Ormsby

CARRIED

Manaaki Whenua - Rapid assessment of land damage

Anna Madarasz-Smith introduced Dr James Shepherd from Manaaki Whenua, which was contracted by MfE and HBRC to carry out a rapid assessment of hill country land damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

· Used satellite imagery for the assessment – looking at before and after imagery.

· Lots of landslides on pastoral land and younger pine forest areas.

· Worst damage was in harvested forest areas, potentially due to forestry management practices, multiple rotations of forestry, or thin soils caused by a long erosion history.

· Indigenous forest areas protected the land better than exotic forest areas.

· Geology – places strong in sandstone had more damage however not correlated to the forested land.

· More work is being done to dig deeper into the detail of the rapid assessment findings to aide future landuse decisions.

· Pole plantings for erosion control do prevent sediment movement into waterways.

CRCCC27/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Manaaki Whenua - Rapid Assessment of Land Damage staff report.

Ormsby/Mackintosh

CARRIED

10.

Telemetry review

Iain Maxwell introduced Peter Davis, Manager Environmental Information, who delivered a presentation about the Council’s telemetry network reviews.

· These very technical reviews sit in the context of the wider independent review.

· The focus of the reviews was to understand, technically, what the problems and issues were – primarily so that they could immediately be remediated and fixed so that the same issues aren’t repeated in future.

· Extensive repair work undertaken to reinstate sites and the ‘build back better’ phase to come, bringing in industry experts to build the most robust, bulletproof system possible.

· Up until 14 February all sites – including flood warning sites – were working.

· Repeater stations collect information from valleys and transmits it to council via radio. Mt Misery repeater station worked perfectly. The Kahuranaki repeater site lost power on 14 February, a shaft on the back-up generator broke and batteries (last back-up) were expired.

· Now have a portable repeater so that if either of the repeater sites go down this can be taken to the site to get the data transfer back up. Also, repeater sites now have 30-day back-up battery power.

· Installing back-up rain gauges, cantilever gauges instead of on bridges, cameras so that every site has more than 1 way of collecting data and ensuring what is set up is future-proofed, including adequate service agreements with any third party providers.

· Telemetry network reviewed every 5-6 years.

· Need warning systems to warn the public of the emergency and what to do. The Council’s flood warning system does not send a warning out to the public. The data from the system is communicated to Civil Defence as the agency responsible for coordinating the emergency response.

CRCCC28/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Telemetry review staff report.

Siers/Mackintosh

CARRIED

Councillor Jerf van Beek offered a prayer to close the meeting.

Closure:

There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 1.05pm on Wednesday, 16 August 2023.

Signed as a true and correct record.

Date: by CRC resolution 8 November 2023 Chair: Sophie Siers