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Consultation closed

Consultation on the Ōtākaro Avon Stormwater Management Plan has now closed. People were able to provide feedback from 21 February - 22 April 2024. During this time, we heard from 27 individuals and groups. You can read their feedback by clicking on the link in the box above. To find out how this influenced the Council decision you can read the minutes - also included in the link above, or watch the decision being made.

The Ōtākaro-Avon Stormwater Management Plan (SMP) will be submitted to Canterbury Regional Council by the deadline of 30 June 2024 to meet consent requirements, and staff will provide information back to the Council to investigate options for stormwater quality enhancements that achieve a higher level of environmental, social and cultural wellbeing.

Stormwater Management Plans (SMPs) outline how we can reduce contamination and progressively improve stormwater discharges.

This SMP is one of seven plans being prepared for the Ōpāwaho-Heathcote, Huritini-Halswell, Ihutai-Estuary and Coastal, Ōtūkaikino, Settlements of Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū-Banks Peninsula, Pūharakekenui-Styx and Ōtākaro-Avon catchments.

The catchment of the Ōtākaro-Avon River is approximately 8,900 hectares in area. Its headwaters are in Avonhead where springs emerge into streambeds from the unconfined aquifer beneath. The aquifer is fed mostly by seepage from the bed of the Waimakariri River and partly by rainfall to the west of the city.

The Ōtākaro Avon SMP has three key purposes:

  1. To meet the targets under the Environment Canterbury Comprehensive Stormwater Network Discharge Consent for reducing stormwater contaminants.
  2. To describe the ways stormwater discharges will be improved over time to meet environmental objectives.
  3. To discuss how flooding risks will be dealt with, if there are any.

Controlling the contaminants of stormwater

Click or tap below to see the potential sources of sediment, copper and zinc, which contaminate our stormwater:

Our goals for this catchment

What we're going to do

Stormwater from new development is usually managed in detention basins which both limit discharge increases and serve as treatment facilities. Based on modelling, environmental drivers and tangata whenua values, and considering best practicable options, the first six contaminant load reduction options below will be implemented in this catchment.

  • Roof coating

    All new residential roofs are expected to be coated (i.e. painted) or non-steel (normal practice)

  • Biofilters

    This SMP proposes to treat stormwater from four sub-catchments; Addington, Lower Riccarton, and Upper and Middle Dudley Creek. Addington and Lower Riccarton are to be treated via biofilters in which stormwater is pumped through natural media like bark and peat. Stormwater in Dudley Creek will be treated though wetlands in Cranford Basin.

  • Pre-treatment

    Stormwater generated from hardstanding areas within new industrial allotments to be pre-treated using an approved gross pollutant trap (GPT), vegetated swale or other proprietary pre-treatment device.

  • Controls on development

    Erosion and sediment control on development and construction sites (Section 12 Goal 1.3).

  • Auditing high risk sites

    Auditing high-risk industrial sites and working with occupiers to remediate contaminated stormwater discharges (Section 12 Goal 4.2 to 4.4).

  • Community education

    Working with community groups and the public to educate the community about the effects of and mitigation of stormwater contaminants, (Section 12 Goal 5.1).

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