Flood risk meeting called at Franz Josef Glacier

The West Coast Regional Council will exclusively brief the Franz Josef Glacier community this afternoon on changes to the Waiho River Future Management Strategy.

The meeting comes three years to the month since the West Coast Regional Council released its report by a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of experts, which recommended letting go the southern stopbanks within 10 years to allow the Waiho (Waiau) River to fan out naturally.

The intent was to abandon the Waiho Flat farming district, the Franz Josef aerodrome, and move State Highway 6 because of the ongoing risk as the gravel riverbed continues to rise in height caused by the rapid retreat of the glacier.

The Franz Josef valley walls have crumbled massively with the ice retreat, sending sediment and gravel washing downstream and causing the riverbed to rise rapidly.

The riverbed now sits several metres in front of the stopbanks and above the level of the township behind the rockwalls.

An advisory from the council, mailed out last week, notes residents are invited to a presentation about the updated TAG report.

"The technical advisory group was brought back together earlier this year to check whether its earlier recommendations still held.

"There's nothing new in the updated report that wasn't in the 2023 report, however it firms up and reinforces those recommendations," the advisory says.

The regional council has already briefed key partners including Te Runanga o Makaawhio and the NZ Transport Agency, whose infrastructure including the State Highway 6 bridge and the road south will be impacted.

The Westland District Council was also invited to that briefing recently but it did not show.

Meantime, Westland Mayor Helen Lash has announced the formation of a committee to come up with a masterplan for the Franz Josef area.

The masterplan was handed to the Westland District Council on the strategy release in 2023 as its key task for the strategy.

The Government has repeatedly said it needs the masterplan so it can consider future funding applications around shifting infrastructure -- including the vulnerable Franz Josef wastewater treatment ponds, and the highway.

Mrs Lash told Local Democracy reporting on Friday she believed her council had not been invited to the preliminary briefing last week, although a WCRC spokeswoman confirmed the district council had declined to attend.

The 2023 report recommended a 10-year river management plan which would initially bolster and maintain the existing stopbanks on the south side, pending the masterplan.

The strategy also mandated separately emergency planning under West Coast Civil Defence given the likelihood the river would at some stage break out of its existing bed -- posing serious risk to human life in an area which at the height of the tourist season sees thousands stay overnight at Franz Josef.

Waiho Flat resident of more than 50 years, Richard Molloy, today called today's meeting "a sham" where he expected the regional council would only repeat the recommendations from 2023.

He and other farming landowners on the flat face a future of losing their capital investment in a land devaluation as a consequence of the 2023 report.

"They have got no money to buy us out, apparently," Mr Molloy said.

In the meantime, since 2023, the Waiho River has now moved entirely away from the south (Waiho Flat) side, with a breakout (avulsion) into the adjoining Tatare River.

The southern stopbanks which have had millions spent on them since 2023 now face on to a dry, empty riverbed.

Mr Molloy said that meant there was not the same pressure on the south bank, as the risk had "spread far wider".

West Coast regional councillor and former chairman Allan Birchfield said although the update "does not have anything new in it" he will be voicing his opposition tomorrow.

In a statement, the council said the TAG was reconvened earlier this year to check if its 2023 recommendations were still valid.

"There is nothing new in the updated report that wasn't in the 2023 report, but it firms up and reinforces those recommendations," the council said.

Franz Josef Rating District Committee member Graham Berry, who farms on Waiho Flat, said it would be better for the Franz Josef community to get better light on the current situation.

"The more information we get, the more we are aware of things, the better it is for us. Not being kept in the dark like we have been. The more direction, the better it is."