Source: Radio New Zealand
A water quality monitor moored midstream south of Melling Bridge in Hutt River Te Awa Kairangi. Phil Pennington / RNZ
Lower Hutt’s roads may be blocked up by the Riverlink highway project, but the river itself has so far kept flowing pretty clear.
Bulldozers have been busy in the riverbed and on its banks, shifting masses of stones around.
Meanwhile, monitors in the water upstream and downstream from the epicentre at Melling Bridge have shown some changes in quality.
“Yes, there have been temporary changes in water quality linked to RiverLink construction activities in the river channel,” Greater Wellington Regional Council told RNZ.
However, by mid-February, tight conditions on pollution had only been infringed once, the project copping fines of about $1000.
The changes in the river were allowed on condition the water quality returned to “ambient clarity” approximately one hour after any job was done, the regional council told RNZ.
It released a host of test results under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.
The council listed a few minor problems for Te Awa Kairangi partnership – in early January, for instance, the water got clouded by work shifting the entire flow of the river from the east bank to the west under the bridge.
In November, fine sediment levels got too high, triggering the first – and as of mid-February – only “active management response” that concluded it was minor and not directly related to Riverlink.
Back in June 2025, “there was a discharge of sediment-laden water from the haul road and Rockline L3 construction works during a site inspection”. That co-incided with heavy rain, so they quickly built some temporary soakage pits and used hay mulch to turn it around.
So far, the project has done four monitoring reports on the riverbed – three on trout, two on macroinvertebrates and two on indigenous fish.
The Hutt River was popular among trout anglers.
“The potential and actual impacts of the RiverLink Project were considered, assessed and appropriate mitigations applied through the Environment Court Consent process,” the council’s group manager environment Lian Butcher said in the released documents.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
