North Canterbury News: November 16, 2023

14 The
NEWS
North Canterbury News, November 16, 2023
Kaiapoi River quality
rated poor since 2018
By SHELLEY TOPP
The Kaiapoi River is unlikely to be
safe for swimming ever again, an
EnvironmentCanterbury(ECan)
surface water quality and ecology
scientist says.
Dr Adrian Meredith's comment
came after ECan’s Water quality for
Contact Recreation:Annual Summary
Report for 2022­23 showed water
testedatthe Kaiapoi River boat ramp
hadreturned avery poor rating since
2018.
Dr Meredith said water in the
Kaiapoi River was likely to have been
heavily contaminated with bacteria
for some time, from anumber of
sources, that will be difficult to
manage or control effectively, he said.
This was because the river is fed by
anetwork of lowland agricultural
streamsand drains (Courtenay
Stream, Silverstream, Ohoka Stream,
Cust River, Cam River), and the
drainage from the increasing urban
area of Kaiapoi that drains into the
Kaiapoi River.
High duck populations along the
rivers, and the high pigeon population
roosting under bridges (particularly
the Williams Street Bridge), are also
believed to be contributors to the poor
water quality.
Dr Meredith said ECan has
identified steps to make incremental
improvements in controlling some of
those sources.
However, the reality is that those
recommendations may never bring the
water quality of ariver like the
current Kaiapoi River into asuitablefor­swimming
grade.
The river is also atidal waterway
whichcontributes to the problem by
concentrating contaminants, leading
to poorer water quality than more
swiftly flowing rivers.
There are also historic contributing
factors.
‘‘The Kaiapoi River, through
Kaiapoi, was originally the north
branchofthe Waimakariri River, and
Kaiapoi township was on Kaiapoi
Island and suffered serious floods and
flood hazards,’’ Dr Meredith said.
Then duringthe 1930s the Wrights
cut diverted the Waimakariri River
more directly to the ocean and cut off
both the north branch (Kaiapoi), and
the south branch (Otukaikino), of the
WaimakaririRiver.
The original north branch would
havehad generally very good water
quality, he said. But after the Wrights
cut was opened and the Waimakariri
River ceased to flow through Kaiapoi
the water quality ‘‘will have greatly
changed’’.
From then on water quality began to
be dominated by the network of
lowland agriculturalstreams and
drains, and the drainage from the
increasing urban area of Kaiapoi.
Historically Kaiapoi River has also
been contaminatedbyaseries of
industrial dischargesinto the
waterway.
However the dischargesceased
more than 30 years ago, and will not be
impacting on high E. coli
concentrations,DrMeredith says.
Classy performance ... Conductor Dwayne Bloomfield with the Rangiora RSA Club Band
performing the premiere of Armistice at Flanders Fields at the Rangiora Baptist Church Hall
in Rangiora.
PHOTO SHELLEY TOPP
Score’sworld premier
By SHELLEY TOPP
Apowerful piece of music written to
commemorate Armistice Day has been
given aworld premiere in Rangiora.
Armistice at FlandersFields, written by
world renowned composer Dwayne
Bloomfield, of Rolleston, was performed
for the first time by the Rangiora RSA Club
Band during aconcert at theRangiora
Baptist Church Hall on Armistice Day, last
Saturday.
Two hours after the Rangiora concert,
which was conducted by Dwayne, and
received astanding ovation from the
audience, Armistice at Flanders Fields
was performed again, this time in
Brisbane, by the ANZAC Brass Band, and
that performance was followed by others
in South Africa, the United Kingdom,
Canada and the USA.
Armistice at FlandersFields is the fifth
WWI musical compositionDwayne, who is
also musical director of the Rangiora RSA
Club Band, and aformer Band Master of
the NZ Army Band, has composed.
He was asked late last year by the coordinator
of the Armistice Day concerts,
John Gardner, to write anew score to
commemorate the historic day and was
‘‘completely sold’’ on the idea.
‘‘I spent until March just thinking about
the shape the piece would take, and doing
research, trying to find out when the last
NZ casualties were, how many deaths on
the last day, who were the last casualties,’’
Dwayne says.
‘‘In March Istarted putting the notes on
to the score, and in August we tested the
first half and some of the ideas, and by
mid­September (I) had completed it.
‘‘We tried it (at) the next practice and
from there started visualising how it was
going to work in performance.’’
From then the band continued to work
on the new composition, and all the others
in the Rangiora concert, right up until the
day of the premiere.
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