Our first lecture is on Wednesday 1 May – Neil Gemmell from the University of Otago will be presenting ‘Environmental DNA for Biodiversity, Biosecurity and Monster Hunting’.

Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is a smorgasbord of organic materials left behind by living things as they pass through their environment. Recent studies have shown the potential of eDNA to detect rare, highly mobile, marine organisms, useful for fisheries, conservation, biosecurity, and the occasional monster hunt. Professor Neil Gemmell is the Royal Society Te Apārangi sponsored speaker for the 2019 Ngā Manu Winter Lectures. 🙂

“Paper koha” means a banknote. —Eds

A Russian woman ‘relaxes’ on a beach covered in plastic trash.  It’s not obvious whether this has washed up from elsewhere or the consequences of fly dumping.

—the location of the storage shed that was flooded near Haast

According to Section 66 of the Health and Safety at Work (Major Hazards Facilities) Regulations 2016, any operators of poison storage facilities like these must take all ‘reasonable steps’ to provide full information to the local community and relevant local authorities.

by Carol Sawyer, Mary Wood and Roger Childs

Whatever your view on the use of 1080, have you ever wondered where they have stored the sodium fluoroacetate over the last 50 years?  How about near a primary school, behind some shops or in a farm shed near a flood-prone river?

The Department of Conversation (DoC) doesn’t advertise where they are doing the stockpiling, and sometimes don’t even inform the local authorities and fire brigades.

1080 is not only a deadly poison but is also highly flammable.¹ Not surprisingly, there have been fires over the years – at Rotorua, Murupara and Levin.

It has recently come to light that a 1080 storage shed at Haast, South Westland, was invaded by floodwaters in late March. There was plenty of publicity about the bridge being washed out, but none on the 1080 flowing down the river.

Surely it’s long past the time to take toxic 1080 bait storage seriously.

Rotorua firemen affected by 1080 fumes

Back in 2006, at a poison storage site in Rotorua, a serious fire broke out. Fireman were hospitalised after breathing in deadly fumes and smoke.

Residents were also concerned about contamination of water supplies, as the wet, burned toxic waste seeped into the ground through drains.

According to Mary Wood, there have been no known follow-ups by DoC or the Ministry of Health on the environmental impact or the health of those involved in that incident.

1080 fire near Levin last year

In Levin, in January 2018, a building owned by the Horizons Regional Council, and used for 1080 bait storage, caught fire.

The pest control poison 1080 was stored in a Levin depot that was burgled and torched. The fire ripped through the Horizons Regional Council depot destroying equipment and damaging vehicles.

Horizons Regional Council chief executive, Michael McCartney said “…all run-off associated with putting out the fire was contained onsite and there are no environmental or health concerns”!

In a letter from Orillion, the NZ government-owned factory in Whanganui that manufactures 1080 baits, states clearly:

“The burning of products containing even low concentrations of sodium fluoroacetate (1080) may release toxic hydrogen fluoride gas of sufficiently high concentration to cause a danger to humans in the vicinity”.

Unloading and storing at Port Nelson 2014

“The Department of Conservation is refusing to confirm or deny that 1080-laced baits are being handled at a Port Nelson warehouse across the street from a bar-restaurant and close to several other businesses.” Bill Moore, Nelson Mail, 26 September 2014

Merrick Allen reported that unloading was done at lunchtime and that “The ‘Anchor Bar and Grill Restaurant’ entrance is only 50 metres away from the loading site. No barriers or notices, no health warnings, and loading and unloading being done with trucks no more than 10 metres from the public footpath.”

DoC spokeswoman Trish Grant said there were 73 tonnes of non-toxic bait and 150 tonnes of toxic bait in storage in the port industrial area! 150 tonnes of 1080 baits contain enough pure poison to kill over 3 million people, and make another 3 million seriously ill.

1080 stored near the shops in Whitianga

In Whitianga, in 2017, 23.7 tonnes of 1080 baits were stored by DoC at the back of the ‘Liquor King Building’ for more than 4 months prior to an aerial 1080 operation in the Coromandel area. Locals were later informed that the District Fire Chief had been unaware of this.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council was also reportedly in the dark. The building was surrounded by two supermarkets and next door to a Placemakers store. Residential housing was just metres away, over a fence.

On the evening of October 17 during the loading of the packaged1080 on to trucks, the air was thick with dust, which would have landed all over people’s lawns and vegetable gardens. The residents were not informed what was going on.

Tua Marina risks not publicised

If you took your kid to a fun, charity horse event, you wouldn’t expect it to be where one of the world’s deadliest chemicals was also stored.

But this is what’s been happening at Shrawley Equestrian Centre, 121 Thomas Road at Tua Marina in Marlborough. The Tuamarina bait store is 3 km from the school and 700 meters on the other side of the river from the Equestrian Centre.

Regarding the Tua Marina site, Kaye McIlveney, Solicitor for Marlborough District Council commented that the council “has no information on health and safety (Worksafe) or MPI requirements.”

She also confirmed that information about the poison storage area was unlikely to be disclosed in a Land Information Memo (LIM) produced for house-buyers.

Storing 1080 in Te Anau

An old laundry building at 52 Caswell Road, Te Anau, is reportedly used for storing 1080 poison baits before aerial 1080 operations in Fiordland.

JJ Nolan’s Transport Ltd, of Haast has been seen unloading 1080 baits there. The building is at the entrance to Northern Southland Transport’s depot. Northern Southland Transport Ltd deliver 1080 baits for the aerial operations.

Carol was told that “DoC have a lease on the old launderette building in Caswell St. They have stored 1080 in the past. ‘Fiordland Jet’ rent it off  DoC while it is not needed.”

On the other side of the building, at 48 Caswell Road is “Safer Parking” !

1080 is very dangerous

It is one of the planet’s deadliest poisons and is banned in most countries.

New Zealand’s use of over 80% of world production is highly controversial.  However, even those who support its use to kill predators, need to be concerned about where it is stored.

There is always a fire risk, and 1080 dust and fumes are hazardous to the health of people and animals.

You can’t see the Manawatu Gorge like this anymore —

But you can like this —

Steam Incorporated is running its steam-hauled ‘Heartland Flyer’ excursion on Sunday 5 May from Paekakariki to Woodville and return. It’s an opportunity to both relive the golden age of steam and to see the Manawatu Gorge by train, now the only way.

There is a stop in Waikanae.

Full info

Like the KCDC, the GRWC comes under the provisions of the Local Government Act which states in in Section 14, among other things: “a local authority should make itself aware of, and should have regard to, the views of all of its communities.”

Whether the GWRC will take any more notice of what you or anyone has to say during the “consultation” process than the KCDC does is dubious, but if you feel so inclined here is the invitation.

“In June 2018, we adopted the Long Term Plan 2018–28(External link) (LTP 18-28) for the Wellington region, which charts a course for the next decade to keep our extraordinary region thriving, connected, and resilient.

“We’re currently planning for the 2019/20 financial year, which will see us delivering Year 2 of the LTP 18-28.

“We’re not planning any changes to our work programme for 2019/20, and we’re keeping the average [our emphasis —Eds] rates rise at 5.9% as forecasted in the LTP 2018-28. We’re on track to do the things we said we’d do.

“However, we are proposing to change the way rates are allocated for 2019/20. To ensure that rates are fair across the region for all property types, we’re proposing a differential on the general rate within Wellington City.

“This means we’re consulting on our Annual Plan 2019/20 and our draft Revenue and Financing Policy, which outlines where the funding for our work comes from.”

More

A pile of new books to read over the next month or two when not staring down at the beautiful Palm Beach on Waiheke Island.

There, I knew that would make you feel sorry for me.

What a life!

Whatever happened to Agatha Christie?

Let me start with good old fashioned Agatha.

Andrew Wilson creates his version of what happened during the real life disappearance of Agatha Christie for ten days in 1926. Theories abounded making headlines in national newspapers.

Fears that she had been murdered, or had left her rather dour husband, or was simply hiding in order to write her next success after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Perhaps she had committed suicide. Thousands of volunteers searched different areas of England.

Wilson, in his absolutely compelling story A Talent for Murder, has her blackmailed into committing murder herself, perhaps.

Reading this dastardly tale, with a serial killer ever lurking, takes you right back to all the Christie epics of yesteryear, a tribute to Wilson’s skill and his form of homage. He has written another where Christie is sailing off to the Canary Islands.

I cannot wait to get on the boat!

Irishman Steve Cavanagh in great form

Two new books by Irish crime writer Steve Cavanagh are well worthy of your attention, if you are not sick to death of serial killers in your reading.

Thirteen throws together a defendant, the defense lawyer, a prosecutor and, you guessed it, a serial killer. The plot is breathtaking, clever and totally entertaining.

So much that I went straight out to buy his latest Twisted and was introduced to the “author” J T Lebeau who is writing a serial killer novel called….Twisted! And by now you may have guessed that the plot is full of….twists!

Both highly recommended.

Brilliance and wisdom from John Boyne

And now for something entirely different – even though this young adult novel is by another Irish writer, John Boyne. He rose to prominence about fifteen years ago with The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, a huge hit.

The narrator cannot understand why there are so many young boys of his age wandering on the other side of a fence in the countryside and dressed so oddly.

We are in Germany.

Now Boyne has his latest hit, I predict, with My Brother’s Name is Jessica. The title tells you almost all, except that this is not Jessica’s story, but his younger brother Sam’s.

Bewilderment and anger surface as Jason tells his family of his intentions and Sam cannot cope. He is bullied at school and the school does little.

Equally dumbfounded are his parents. Mother is in the Cabinet, father her private secretary, they offer all the clichéd responses like “it’s a phase, it can be cured.”

But most important, to them, how will it affect the polls if it got out that they had a transgender son, as they aspire to the greasy pole of prime ministership.

This is a wonderfully humane, funny and richly helpful story for all, not just young adults.

Embrace the differences in our society. Does that sound familiar in these present times?
Read it and be grateful that people like Boyne continue to share his brilliance with us.

And he is in Auckland and Dunedin next month for writers’ weeks.

Next article I promise nothing but sweetness and light. Maybe!

(First published in Kapiti and Coast Independent.)

Ngātiawa WAI 1018 :- 11-12 June 2019

and

WAI 1620 Paraparaumu Airport-–Lake Whanau :- 10 June 2019

Venue: Southwards Car Museum, Otaihanga.

In the words of Witi Rangitaake Ngātiawa Rebel ally “Te Hau Ua”

Pai Mārīre

Apihaka Tamati/Pirikawau Mullen Mack