Four Upper Clutha groups have requested a range of actions from Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) in the wake of the council’s decision to defer investment in stormwater mitigation around Bullock Creek. 

Friends of Bullock Creek (FOBC) has written (with the support of Guardians of Lake Wānaka, Wānaka Lake Swimmers Club, and Touchstone) to QLDC mayor Glyn Lewers requesting “positive actions” after council’s decision to defer action on the issue for seven years.

The groups say their requests will help minimise the impact of pollution on the creek and subsequently Lake Wānaka. 

The requests vary in magnitude from asking council to empty and clean the existing sediment pond annually, to asking council to stop further urban growth south of the headwaters of Bullock Creek.

The groups want the QLDC Code of Practice for Developers to be updated to require stormwater mitigation measures; and want QLDC to discourage people from washing cars in driveways and streets, via an education campaign.

“Not only are washing chemicals being directly channelled into the stormwater systems and subsequently into Bullock Creek and Lake Wānaka, but soil residues from vehicles are also ending up contaminating our freshwater,” the letter says.

The groups say this issue is worse during the ski season.

More significantly, the groups want council to immediately undertake a “comprehensive investigation into sustainable mitigation options for stormwater management”, so an option is identified and ready when funding is made available. 

In the meantime, the groups have requested that QLDC “put a stop to further urban growth south of the headwaters of Bullock Creek” until it has invested in sustainable stormwater infrastructure to prevent further stormwater contamination of Bullock Creek and Lake Wānaka.

The four groups repeated their message in a recent FOBC submission to the council’s Spatial Plan, the purpose of which is to manage urban growth while guiding how “the natural environment is protected and enhanced”.

FOBC noted that the spring-fed Bullock Creek runs through the Wānaka township and into Lake Wānaka, and when urban development (Alpha Series) began south of the creek’s headwaters in 2015 the creek was ”pristine and stable”.

However, a May 2023 Otago Regional Council report, ‘State and Trends of Rivers, Lakes and Groundwater in Otago 2017 – 2022’ identified Bullock Creek as the most polluted freshwater body in the Upper Lakes Rohe.

The Wānaka App approached QLDC for comment but had not received a response before this story was published.