Estuary Half-Tide Plan Criticised By Yachtsman

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30469, 17 June 1964, Page 1

Estuary Half-Tide Plan Criticised By Yachtsman

Permanent lowering of water below high-tide level would spell the doom of sailing and other aquatic sports in the Estuary, the Canterbury Yachting Association was told by its president (MrW.H. Beanlahd) last evening.'

Mr Beanland .attacked’ a proposal by the Christchurch Drainage Board to construct a barrage across the mouth of the Pstuary at Fisherman’s Point or Shag Rode.

The .investigation of the proposal alone ‘would cost many ’ thousands of pounds, but the board had not fully informed the public of its likely effects, he said. “The purpose for building a barrage Is to reduce the level of the Estuary water to halftide level; this restriction to inflow will have many illeffects, the main one, from our point of view, being that it will be impossible to go Sailing or motor-boating,” he said. *A Gigantic Bluff’ Mr Beanland said it had been . suggested that the Estuary would be dredged and “made into a wonderful aquatic playground.” “This is not part of the proposal of the board and this is where the board is putting across a gigantic bluff,” he said.

Both the drainage board and the city council had some control over the Estuary, but the real control was still with the Marine Department which would have to approve the proposed work. Support From M.P.s "This is where we would need the support of our local members of Parliament,” Mr Beanland said. “Several of them are already serving aS vice-presidents in our clubs, and should they let us down, and allow the Estuary to become unfit for sailing, I am sure the club members would only look on them, as. we would: defaulters.” - /• Mr Beanland, who has a “vivid recollection” of the Estuary and its moods as a practical seaman over a period of 68 years said he could recall many changes in the Estuary channels which had been detrimental to sailing, some of them the work of engineers. He could recall no benefit conferred by engineers in the Estuary. Cheaper Methods “The engineers pf the Christchurch Drainage Board and its advisers naturally support the biggest and most costly schemes and therefore pay little heed to methods which would probably give greater benefit than would the building of a barrage,” Mr Beanland said. He suggested a weir with sluice gates at the mouth of the Heathcote river and a similar structure in the Avon river. “In times of heavy rain with likely flooding in the rivers, the gates could be closed against the incoming tide and thus stop any backing up of flood water.. 1 do not remember any flood in the rivers that did not recede with the tide on the ebb,” he said. Mr Beanland. said that in normal weather the gates could be ■ closed at the peak of the tide, and opened at, say, half tide, to increase the tidal flow and scour the channels and thus help to mitigate the drainage problem. “One often hears complaints

of the state of the Heathcote river caused by, effluent from factories.” Mr Beanland said/ “But when one observes the ebb and flow of this river and that flotsam and .jetsam just flow up and down until much qf it settles to the bottom or gets tangled with growth on the banks, one must realise that, if this river flowed out and never in, it could be kept much healthier.. ML Pleasant Outlook , ’“Assisted, by the judicious control of the sluice gates, this river could be rid of its unsavoury criticism: and no doubt the Avon would benefit' also from such control, particularly Kerrs Reach,” he said. Other undesirable rqpercus-

sions could result from the drainage board’s barrage, Mr Beanland said. “The reduced- flow of the tide could alter the foreshore at Sumner, the lowering of the tidal level above the barrage could turn that part of the Estuary into a cesspit. “I am sure the residents of Mount Pleasant would not be pleased with the F-ok of the Estnary maintained at not ’more than half tide level, nor the smells likely to emanate .from it.

“One thing wc can be sure of: any lowering of the high tide level will spell the doom of -yachting and other aquatic sports on the Estuary," 'Mr Beanland said.