Received from Lyndon Weggery
Monday, 25 January 2016 6:13 p.m.
█ Message: I did comprehensive research at the Library this afternoon and these are my findings. Councillors have clearly dropped the Ball!!!
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From: Lyndon Weggery
To: Jinty MacTavish
CC: Andrew Noone
Subject: South Dunedin Flooding: ICMPs
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:10:14 +1300
Dear Jinty,
You will be aware of the widespread concern that despite the Mayor’s opinion the stormwater network infrastructure did play a significant part in the flooding of 3 June 2015. I would tend to agree with that opinion because a close study of the South Dunedin Integrated Catchment Management Plan (ICMP) attached to the 3 Waters Strategy conveys the same impression. The question I have asked myself is this: were Councillors aware of the potential problems before last year’s extreme weather event and could any of you have done more to check that South Dunedin ICMP recommendations were being followed through faithfully by staff with adequate funding by Council?
You will recall being part of the Infrastructure Services Committee that formally endorsed the 3 Waters Strategy in 2010 along with the 10 ICMPs that were attached. On 29 November 2011 I note from the minutes of the Infrastructure Services Committee in regard to Agenda item 6 (3 Waters Strategy Project – use of Integrated Catchment Management Plans) that you personally seconded a motion by former Councillor Syd Brown:
1. That it be noted that 11 stormwater ICMPs had been developed covering Dunedin’s urban-based reticulated stormwater catchments (including Mosgiel)
2. “that the approach proposed regarding the use and management of the information contained within the ICMPs be endorsed”
Motion carried
You may recall from the Staff Report prepared by Tracey Willmott that part of the approach that you seconded to be endorsed was “From an investment perspective – the ICMPs are a tool used to inform and justify the capital and operational investments made by WWS. They propose a series of recommendations over the short, medium and long term and suggest a costed and prioritised programme of work for each catchment comprising of: capital work options, planning options, operation and maintenance tasks or further study.”
So my question is why didn’t you (or any one of your colleagues) think to follow this up by using your right to put this important matter on future Agendas for a review? It is sad that a close inspection of subsequent minutes show no Councillor using the “Notification of Agenda Items for consideration by the Chair” option to formally check on progress with ICMP implementation and particularly the South Dunedin Catchment.
To be fair to Staff the next (and only time) this matter came up on the Agenda was 12 June 2012 under Agenda [item] 4 Stormwater Quality Update. Although this Report majored on quality discharge there were bold statements made eg “we will resolve all known cross connections between the foul and stormwater networks by 2015 etc” and particularly in the Conclusion – “Council has also committed significant funds to ensure that its strategic stormwater management objectives are met and is making good progress with implementation of these Plan”.
So in the light of these promises and the fact that a search of subsequent minutes of the ISC to date show no mention of this issue why wasn’t this most important issue followed up by you and your fellow councillors on the Infrastructure Services Committee?
Lyndon Weggery
[ends]
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[The above email has been lightly moderated for style consistency.]
The chair of Infrastructure Services Committee is Cr Kate Wilson. Cr Jinty MacTavish chairs the Community and Environment Committee. Cr Andrew Noone is the past chair of ISC, and currently chairs the Hearings Committee.
Lyndon is wrong.
The 3 June 2015 Dunedin Flood was NOT an extreme weather event. This was easily confirmed by recognised experts in their fields including a hydrologist (hydrologists use a variety of computational, hydrological and scientific modelling techniques in the research, development and maintenance of safe and sustainable domestic or natural water management strategies) and a meteorologist (meteorologists predict the weather and study the causes of particular weather conditions using information obtained from the land, sea and upper atmosphere; they use computerised and mathematical models to make short and long-range forecasts concerning weather and climate patterns). Historical records have also been referenced to expose the Mayor of Dunedin’s erroneous claim that this was an extreme weather event.
![King Edward St - South Dunedin Flood June 2015 [Stuff.co.nz]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/king-edward-st-south-dunedin-flood-june-2015-stuff-co-nz.jpg)
![South Dunedin flood June 2015 [stuff.co.nz]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/south-dunedin-flood-june-2015-stuff-co-nz.jpg)
Related Posts and Comments:
19.1.16 Listener 23.1.16 (letter): South Dunedin #Jun2015flood
16.1.16 NZ Listener 16.1.16 (letter): South Dunedin #Jun2015flood
5.1.16 Hammered from all sides #fixit [dunedinflood Jun2015]
24.12.15 Site notice: posts removed
3.11.15 South Dunedin Flood | Correspondence & Debriefing Notes released by DCC today #LGOIMA
█ For more, enter the term *flood* in the search box at right.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Images: Stuff.co.nz – South Dunedin Flood June 2015
What if? Dunedin... 
Have the South Dunedin mudtanks been cleaned yet?
What’s the rush?
Sent:
From: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Monday, 25 January 2016 9:24 p.m.
To: Sandy Graham; DCC LGOIMA Information Request
Cc: Kristy Rusher; Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: LGOIMA Request – Ref No. 531420
Further to my use of the online form at DCC website:
Dear Sandy
LGOIMA Request – South Dunedin mudtanks and stormwater drains
Reference No. 531420
I request the following information:
1. Can Dunedin City Council tell me if all mudtanks and stormwater drains in the South Dunedin catchment have been physically cleared in the time elapsed since the 3 June 2015 flood?
2. How many times have these mudtanks and stormwater drains been checked and cleared since the 3 June 2015 flood?
3. Which contractor / subcontractor has been responsible for this monitoring and clearance work since the 3 June 2015 flood?
4. Who (name and staff position) at Dunedin City Council has been directly responsible for checking the contractor / subcontractor work since the 3 June 2015 flood?
5. Are there any items of stormwater infrastructure in the South Dunedin catchment that are known to be blocked or cannot be cleared (if for any reason), since the 3 June 2015 flood?
I look forward to your reply in digital format by email.
Kind regards, Elizabeth
[ends]
Harreyujah, well done Elizabeth. Now watch dat OBFUSCATION.
We need prolife or whatever his nom-de-plume is to advise on the reality of the response.
The event was extreme for those residents flooded out and evacuated, incl Rest homes, and homes further flooded by the wake from speeding vehicles. I gather what you are saying is that the SD flooding was not caused by extreme weather. Nevertheless, the pictures were one thing, being in the flood quite another.
The effect was extreme, nobody doubts that!
The rainfall wasn’t. It’s not an every-year amount of rain but nor is it a 1 in 100 year rainfall.
Nor was the devastating effect caused by sea level rise – that’s a lame excuse, a cop-out. It’s extreme unwillingness to admit failures of DCC as a whole, let alone examine honestly who isn’t doing their jobs adequately.
South Dunedin people as individuals, as households and as community have to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess, dealing with insurance companies, organising tradesmen and DIYing.
DCC and Council take responsibility for what? Burying facts under bullshit and taking the public’s eyes off reality with a display of spinning cowpats! Nobody’s name can be associated with any dereliction of duty, the only permissible attributions are “climate change” and “Dolly did it” – always provided that in any particular instance the individual responsible (irresponsible) wasn’t actually named Dolly after the estimable Ms Parton.
Brownestudy, the flood was a result of extreme weather CAUSED by the non clearing of mudtanks by the council contractor who despite being paid over $200,000 to clean the mudtanks in 2015, did not clean the mudtanks.
Would there have been such a devastating flood had the mudtanks been regularly cleaned as required- possibly, but in that case why pay for the mudtanks to be cleaned at all, that being the reason for the mudtanks to be cleaned to accelerate the elimination of stormwater through the system.
Know what you mean. This flatlands Isthmus flooding is new to me. I grew up in a River Valley. Flooding was a matter of too much rain in headwaters flowing to coincide with High Tide. It was called ‘Old Man Flood’, which was very unfair to Coaster Mr Flood. Very dangerous, driven by currents. OMF got regulär so the Town built a Riverbank Wall.
Reference:
NIWA
Welcome to the New Zealand Historic Weather Events Catalog
This is a catalog of major weather events in New Zealand over the last 200 years. The information has been collated from newspaper reports, journals, books and databases kindly provided by various organisations and individuals. For each event we identify the regions affected, the hazards types associated with the event and the resulting impacts.
http://hwe.niwa.co.nz/
This particular page and I chose 1940 as a start date randomly, would suggest that flooding was a much more likely event in the 1940s than any decade subsequently.
http://hwe.niwa.co.nz/search/summary/Startdate/n-a/Enddate/n-a/Regions/all/Hazards/all/Impacts/all/Keywords/Dunedin/numberOfEvents/20/page/5
How does this stack up with the global warming climate change model?
Could the 97 percenters be incorrect- Gosh!
That NIWA summary of events seems to shoot all the Global warming Climate Change arguments in the foot. The preponderance of snow, cold snaps etc in the 1990s through the ‘noughties’ is quite at variance with the claims of them being the hottest decades on record for the planet.
The June 2015 rain event didn’t evince any special comment as compared to all others back to the 1800s. From all this is it obvious that the only remarkable thing about that event was the highlighting of the poor condition of the drainage system, the subsequent running for cover by the people responsible for the oversight of system care and maintenance and last, but not least the total disarray of the DCC Civil Defence team who, as far as the affected South Dunedin citizens were concerned were conspicuous by their absence. Since then, of course, the ‘spin meisters’ have been hard at it.
Sitting in DCC meeting amongst Infrastructure debate. Group Manager Water and Waste in the chair…..
Maybe turn South Dunedin into a Venice lol!
With breakers ~!!
Interesting but yucky seeing white foam stuff in the canals. Brownestudy – that is exactly an image I had in mind as well. I’ve definitely been thinking if SoDu had canals it would look great with the heritage buildings. It would make it look like a SoDu renaissance. It would be a beautiful area to see gondolas as well, especially in the Leith River of North Dunedin.
Story. Canals. Keep heritage buildings we can punt past impersonating Donald Sutherland/Julie Christie as gondolier sings 0 Sal Mineo.
Pedal powered boats….
At Tuesday’s pre-Draft Annual Plan meeting Cr Hilary Calvert put a direct question – on the public’s behalf – to the group manager water and waste services about the mudtanks at South Dunedin, referring to these as “the hippopotamus in the room” (or some other water-based mammal)…. The question was circumnavigated and passed to the new group manager transport who similarly went sailing.
Result: No real answer.
TELLING
“Cr Hilary Calvert put a direct question – on the public’s behalf” – and yet a staff member paid from our rates feels entitled to treat her and us with contempt, refusing to give a straight answer to a straight question.
We are not permitted to utter our response to that person’s treatment of our representative.
O the joy of sheltered workplaces for the overentitled from whom little can be demanded.
We, on the other hand, are here to pay, pay, pay without questioning. The nameless peasant masses giveth and the lordly taketh away, legally protected be the name of the lordly.