Above and below.. the 'Emergency Outfall' for the Green Island sewerage treatment plant.
Looks like the sand has been recently removed from in front of the outfall area which discharges straight on to the beach.
The Green Island Sewerage treatment plant was up-graded to secondary treatment with UV disinfection and the marine outfall was extended out in the year 2000 to 850m offshore at Waldronville. This emergency outfall pipe still appears to operate.
As this is a restricted coastal activity a resource consent permit is required to discharge up to 103680 m3/day of treated effluent to the Pacific Ocean. This is via the newer 850m Waldronville sewerage outfall pipe.
Below the Dunedin Gun Club and the Dunedin Pistol Club operate on the reserve area at Waldronville, Here a Permit for sand mining is in operation, the scar is easily visible at the back of the firing range.
Also ( left below) there is another site for sand mining a short walk to the right of the range behind the pistol firing range. (right below) the above pit from another angle.
Below, nice to see a planting programme taking place in the dunes beyond the gun club.
Below:
ready to truck out.. the house on the corner.. stripped of its bricks, and parted from its foundations.
Above: Recontouring of the dunes to skim off the top of the unstable fill layers making them safer to the public is finally underway. Assuming here that this is just a small portion of what needs to be done to repair the dunes, and there is alot more work to be done.
Below left: Fill material skimmed off the top of the dunes during re-contouring is stored for removal at Kettle Park Road. Above right: from the beach at St Kilda, partially re-contoured dunes.
I still feel strongly there needs to be public education via the press and council erected signs on beach level entry points NOT to scale or disturb the dunes. Yesterday there were many people climbing the large sand store pile at Middles and jumping down it.
Foundations are now going up for the new beauty therapy business. On the section previously was the longest running commercial building in the area. It began its life as a store in 1884, and during its reign it switched hands many times alternating between a grocers and a telegraphist/telephone office until in 1961 when it became a hair salon 'Salon Susan' and then in 1965 'Kaylyn' Hairdressing Salon, then switching to the final tenant 'Wendy's Hair' this year.
Above right:: windows are coming out from the yellow house.
Above:: A photograph taken around the late 1880's, the two circled areas A/ where the new hotel development (see here) is going up now. B/ the building that was recently demolished (see here) to make way for the current construction above.
Below:: a comparison over time highlighting the encroachment of Seconds Beach Road towards the sea when the new sea wall was built.
Below: The sand scarps looking from St Kilda towards St Clair, you can see the two large sand stockpiles hugging the cliffs.
many children even under the supervision of their parents were scaling the cliffs and knocking more sand down, I even spoke [nicely] to a few and they just ignored my plea for respect and the danger their children were in and let them carry on ripping up and down the very unstable dune faces, especially some of the capping hard fill at the top which was very precariously angled ready to fall at any time.
I wonder why there is no monitoring of these actions, or notices to stay off the dune/cliff faces its clearly a danger to the public.. and how can the public be so disrespectful to their environment?
Below: closeup of Moana Rua sand stockpile, with the offshore wind blowing the sand out to sea.
Today I attended the Public segment of the 6 weekly Community Development Committee's meeting, where today they were to present the "Coastal Emergency Works" Summary Report. Present were the current city councillors, mayor, other council employees & various members of the public.
I have been working this week with Tracey Crampton-Smith, [both a mayoral candidate, and candidate for a South Dunedin seat on the DCC]. The five minute presentation, which Tracey presented was intense but effective. I put together a very short video version of the erosion that has occured at Ocean Beach the last few months which was played in the first minute of the submission.
Video Below::
Below:: is the written summary page 'conclusions' that we presented based on the content of the verbal submission presented today.
CONCLUSIONS
Ocean Beach [St Clair, Middle & St Kilda] is an artificially positioned, highly exposed, high energy site at high risk of coastal erosion and therefore requires urgent and effective management.
1. Increased storm frequency, unpredictability and severity along with predicted sea level rise and global warming will increase enormously erosion risk at Ocean Beach in the future without practicable and effective long term management.
2. Erosion management methods based on “Hard engineering” methods such as sea walls, sand sausages and rock baskets have consistently proven to exacerbate erosion and require ongoing ratepayer funding and maintenance. Sand replenishment is both financially unsustainable and unproven as a long term solution, and therefore these methods are high risk.
3. The Dunedin City Council consultants, Dtec, have suggested it would be negligent to commit ratepayer funds to the previous design plans and that finding a new remedy should be addressed with some urgency. Council and consultants have agreed they do not have a long-term solution. In 2001 the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, recommended the application of 'soft shore' protection schemes and advised avoiding the use of 'Hard' shore protection methods such as vertical concrete walls and rock piles.
4. Alternative “soft-shore” methods of coastal erosion management based on “Natural process” (such as Holmbergs' Undercurrent Stabilisation method), have been developed and proven to provide effective management of similar sites overseas.
5. Public consultation must be actioned expediently so that a sustainable long term plan can be implemented without being preempted by the currently proposed 'holding pattern' consisting of sand stockpiling and rock baskets. However, the public should be given the opportunity to be consulted and agree on solution performance criteria.
6. Since the coastal zones affected by a solution will be fall under the jurisdiction of the Otago Regional Council and the Dunedin City Council both Councils should work jointly on this issue throughout.
7. Coastal erosion methods such as 'soft shore protection' that have a proven track record of success in managing similar sites which can stand to open transparent assessment must be given urgent and appropriate consideration.
Channel 9 Website Article - September 3, 2007 - 10:35am
source link
The Dunedin City Council is asking for public comment and submissions on long term planning for St Clair and Middle Beaches.
Councillor Paul Hudson says the DCC is seeking local opinions and expertise rather than paying for advice from experts who don't live here.
It was just under two months ago, the DCC took emergency measures to stop further winter storms and strong seas undermining the sand dunes fronting Kettle park sports fields.
Tomorrow, Councillor Paul Hudson is expected to advise a committee meeting that the measures cost three quarters of a million dollars but another $400,000 is needed for follow up measures.
He says, the DCC has been inundated with information from the public about the history and suggested management of the area.
He says, he'd prefer to hear from locals rather than paid experts not from Dunedin and from the end of October they'll be formally seeking public comment.
The bricks are coming off .. the hotel is going up, the character of the esplanade is guaranteed to change drastically .. the implications of such a massive [in scale of the area] development will reveal over the coming years. So with the building permit obviously secured, despite there being an ongoing 'beach emergency' 100 metres away all we can do is watch. see previous blog post on this issue
Change again around the corner in the public playground adjacent to the Southcoast Boardriders clubrooms. I used to play there when I was a child, and I took my children to play there too, always the same old classic playground equipment and probably the last remaining of its genre in Dunedin. Below a series of photos of the reconstruction over the last 6 weeks. (inset, some kind of surfing mechanical bull thing)
I guess if the children can't play on the beach due to an absence of sand, they now have a high tech playground.
