Rock armouring would be used rather than the 30cm geotextile tube sand mattresses used at the outset of the project to protect 240m of waterfront, between Oamaru Creek and Holmes Wharf, in front of the Oamaru Creek penguin colony, council acting chief executive Neil Jorgensen said yesterday.
A three-week delay after work began in April — when the contractor had some difficulties with the sand delivery method for filling the mattresses — had been overcome, and good progress was being made at the beach in front of 252 little blue penguin nesting boxes at Oamaru Harbour.
But then the beach changed, making it impossible for the sand mattresses to be installed at the correct slope.
"About three weeks ago there was a large depression off the coast which resulted in large waves from a different direction; this also coincided with a period of king tides," Mr Jorgensen said.
Coast Care’s Lorraine Adams, who has criticised the council’s handling of the project since it started, said she "must have slept through" the storm.
Ms Adams, a long-time campaigner for the penguins at the reserve, advocated rock armouring at the outset of the project, but said she believed the council should re-apply for a resource consent now it had changed its mind on the use of sand mattresses.
"There hasn’t been a storm. The last time there was high seas, they were going up over the ngaios. That was high seas. But the rocks in the middle didn’t move and neither did the ngaios — and they’ve removed them all. I just think it’s a shambles, it’s disgusting really.
"Some of the work they’ve done, you can’t reverse it."
When the council released tender documents for the project Ms Adams objected, because it allowed for the possibility of rock armouring or sand mattresses, despite the consent application arguing against the use of rock armouring in the area for several reasons. And, on December 14 last year, after Ms Adams approached the Otago Regional Council with her concerns, its consents officer Charles Horrell told her in an email that Coast Care "as well as all other affected parties" would be re-notified if the proposal for sand mattresses at the beach changed.
"If there are significant changes sought then [the council] will need to reapply for consent, as the consents issued are specific to what was originally applied for/what the affected parties assessed."
Yesterday, the regional council’s policy planning and resource management director Fraser McRae said the council had not issued a new consent "but the existing consent may need to be modified". The emergency work the district council had done at the beach was allowed under Section 330 of the Resource Management Act, "which allows emergency works to proceed without resource consent where immediate action is required to prevent or remedy an adverse effect on the environment".
Mr Jorgensen said the cost of the rock armouring work, including the emergency work, would add $130,000 to the project, but the project would remain in line with the amount budgeted for, and the council would supply the regional council with a progress report as rock armouring continued.
Deputy Mayor Melanie Tavendale defended the decision to change tack on the project yesterday.
"At the end of the day, our bottom line is we’ve got to protect our assets," she said.
"We need to react when reaction is needed."
Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony research scientist Dr Philippa Agnew said she had been notified of the change, and while she preferred the sand mattresses, "the rock armouring will also work".
