Published as Issue No. 84
October 23, 2013
Fair Weather, Fair and Good Fare:Newly elected Eastern ward city councillor Sarah Free [photo missing] and re-elected Southern councillor Paul Eagle [photo missing] joined the crowds at the Houghton Valley School Fair on Saturday. Funds raised will be known shortly.
[Sarah also visited the community garden before the election and learnt about our “Lifting the Creek’ Project.] http://sarahfree.org.nz/2013/
Lifting the former Houghton Valley creek: Locals have been asking what this would involve, Jenny from Houghton Bay Rd comments: “Presently, all the fresh water (from rain and springs) falls on the fields and soaks through the landfill and drains into the leachate pipe that lies at the bottom of the tip, some of which ends up on the beach. The idea is to divert the rain and spring water into a new open channel (i.e. creek) before it soaks in and becomes polluted. A water engineer would need to assess if this is achievable without excessive earth works, as there is no clay capping to the landfill.However, at the very least the creek would be clay lined to keep the water on the surface. Whether the water at the wetland soaks in or is piped away still needs to be established. At the moment the project is just an idea, aimed at having only fresh water in the open channel. Gradually, we will move onto the feasibility and technical details.” More information – http://houghtonvalley.org.nz/
Norman