Surface Water and Why it is Important

Councils all over the world talk about the “three waters”.  These are: 

1. Drinking and household water, 
2. Waste water and 
3. Surface water.

Drinking Water
Few of us stop to think how amazing it is that we can turn on the tap and good water comes out. 100s of kilometres of pipes and huge pumps are used to get water to your place, just when you want it from deep under the ground.

Waste Water 
This is water from things like our washing water, our toilets or used water from our sinks.  It also includes water that has been used by industry.  This water is is pumped through sewers and to the sewage treatment plant in Bromley.

Surface Water 

This  is all the water that flows off our streets, driveways, houses, and parks when it rains.  All surface water runs directly into our creeks and river systems. 

Christchurch is one of the flattest cities in the world and much of it used to be wetlands.  This means that drainage in the city has always been difficult, particularly when we have a lot of rain. Water quickly runs off the hard, paved surfaces that we have around the city rather than soaking into the ground slowly.  This increases flooding and affects the pollution of our rivers and streams.

Any pollutants on these surfaces run off when it rains and end up in the rivers and, eventually, in the sea.  Common pollutants are things like

• plastic, which is dropped or falls out of people’s rubbish bins,
• copper which comes from car brake pads or copper on houses,
• zinc which comes from unpainted roofs and
• oil, detergents or anything that might be on the roads or in driveways that is washed off when it rains.
• dog poo and pee
• Anything that people decide to wash down a drain

You can help keep our local rivers clean by:

• asking for copper free brake pads when you have to replace the brake pads on your car, 
• making sure your car is not leaking oil, and by washIng your car on your lawn or in a car wash (not on your driveway or on the road where all the detergent will run into the river).
• keeping your roof painted, 
• washing paint brushes in a sink in your house rather than near roadside drains, and 
• picking up dog poo when you are out walking the dog 
• planting densely along drains and river banks.  If you have a river in your garden you can do this yourself.  If not the help with planting days along stream banks.  Taller plants and even long grass can help to catch pollutants before they enter the waterways

More Power Savers

In my last post, I provided some power saving tips – things that you can do for free to cut your power bills.  

In this postI’m going to look at things that have a cost but which generally pay back that cost by the power that you save.
 
Low energy lighting.
The no-extra-cost ideas from last month will save you more than enough to buy your first low-energy light bulbs.  LEDs are dropping quickly in price, they last a long time and a bulb of around 8 watts gives good light equivalent to a traditional 100 watt filament bulb, or a 25 watt fluorescent bulb.  Where possible avoid using the fluorescent light bulbs (the ones composed of small curly tubes).  They are quite fragile and contain mercury which makes them more hazardous to dispose of if you break them.  

LEDs can be bought pretty much wherever you buy lightbulbs.


Efficient Fridge Doors
Fridges and freezers can use a lot of power because they’re working 24hrs a day.  If choosing a new fridge, look for at least 3.5 stars on the energy efficiency label. Each extra star is an efficiency gain of about 10%.

Check the seals on upright fridge and freezer doors. They need to be tight enough to hold a piece of paper trapped in place when the door is closed.  If not put new seal on the doors.  Look for parts sources in Yellow Pages or ask at a retailer.

If you have an older fridge that runs  for long periods each day it may have a faulty thermostat –A recent survey found that about one in 5 older fridges did!  Unnecessary running could frost-damage food and run up excess bills. 
 

Stop whistling draughts.
Draughts can steal away up to 20% of the warm air from your home. Block up any open fireplaces with a chimney balloon or permanently with board or bricks and seal gaps in and around windows and  exterior doors. Hardware stores stock draught-stop strips, brushes and sealing caulks. You can make draught-stopper ‘sausages’ or ‘snakes’ to place at internal doors, from old scraps of fabric, stuffed with tights or cushion filling.
 

Cheap  DIY double-glazing  for windows.
Some of your windows might be suitable for using a plastic window insulation kit.  These are a clear plastic film, which you attach to the inside of the window frame using double-sided adhesive tape, and shrink the plastic to fit with a hair-dryer or fan heater.  You can find out more about the pros and cons of this at www.energywise.govt.nz

Free Power Savers

People have managed to save quite a lot on their power bills simply by learning about their own power use and thinking about how to use less.  Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. How hot is your hot water?

A survey of NZ homes found that about 1/3 of them had had dangerously hot water at the tap.  If it is, it can be a danger to children may risk being scalded and you will be using a lot of power to keep it that hot.

Hot water at the tap should not exceed 50°centigrade when running at its hottest.  Don’t make it too much lower than this – it also needs to be hot enough to control bacteria in the water.  Most electric or gas water heaters have a thermostat fitted to control how hot the tank gets.  The thermostat at the tank should not exceed 60°C, so that water from the hot taps flows at no more than 50°C.

    

     2. Only turn stuff on when you are using it

Turn off the TV, or lights when there is no-one in the room. Put the computer to sleep if you are going to be away from it for a few minutes.  Turn it off if you are going to leave it for more than an hour.  Turn these things off at the wall overnight or during the day if you are not home.

      3. Wash clothes in cold water

You know this!   Use cold water detergent and just do it. 

Running the machine only when you have a full load also saves power.

4. Dry clothes outside in the Sun

As much as possible hang your clothes outside in the sunshine.   An added benefit even in the winter is that UV light in sunshine helps to kill bacteria on your clothes.  Better still, put a clothesline under a carport, pergola or other covered area for when it rains.

It IS better to use a well vented dryer for a few minutes than to dry clothing on racks indoors when it’s raining.  Drying clothing indoors releases heaps of moisture into your house making it damp and cold.

5.  Once dusk falls, close the curtains.

Keep room heat in. Glass still loses heat, but more slowly when insulated from the room’s warm air by lined curtains under a pelmet or by close-fitting fabric blinds. Venetian blinds are not effective insulation as they allow too much air movement.

If your curtains are thin or non-existent, check out the curtain bank at Community Energy Action

Phone 374 7222 or visit www.cea.co.nz

What is Local government?

Local body elections are coming up this year in October. Every three years, we get to vote in the people who oversee the Christchurch City Council and the local Community Board, Environment Canterbury and the District Health Board. 

Local Government is given its responsibilities in the Local Government Act 2002.  These are to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and

to meet the current and future needs of communities for

• good-quality local infrastructure, ie water supply, drainage, sewerage and roads,
• local public services (things like libraries, community activities), and
• to regulate things like subdivisions or housing development, building activities, businesses etc.

Many of these activities are also directed by central government through legislation such as the Resource Management Act, the Reserves Act

 

Council activities

Regional councils, like Environment Canterbury, are primarily concerned with environmental resource management, flood control, air and water quality, pest control, and, in specific cases, public transport, regional parks and bulk water supply.

Territorial authorities, like our City Council, are responsible for a wide range of local services including roads, water reticulation, sewerage and refuse collection, libraries, parks, recreation services, local regulations, community and economic development, and town planning.

In Christchurch, we elect a council and a community board.  Community boards, as their name implies, have a more local focus whilst City Councillors keep an eye on issues across the whole city.  For most local issues, the place to start contacting the Council is through the community board.  Community boards allocate some funding and make decisions on some kinds of local facilities.  They also make recommendations to Council on decisions being taken by them.

District Health Board

These elections also allow us to vote for people to sit on our District Health Board which allocates health funding.   Health Boards can also impact on you because they have some influence as to the priorities of health funding in Canterbury.

You can have a say in how your community is run by voting in the local government elections.  Voting is by post.  Papers will be sent out to voters in late September or early October and have to be into the returning officer by 12^th October.  To find out more visit the Local Government NZ website

Who will you be voting for?

1)      One person to represent you on the Christchurch City Council.    

Christchurch is divided in to 14 wards and a City Councillor represents one ward. 

2)      Two people to represent you on a community board. 

There are 6 community boards around the City.   Each is made up of either two or three wards.  Each ward has two community board members to represent them in addition to the Councillor for that ward.

3)      Two people to represent you on the Regional Council.

The Canterbury Regional Council is to have a full democratic election for the first time in 9 years.  From 2008 to 2016, Environment Canterbury has been run by a council appointed by the government.  In 2016 about half of the council was elected democratically.  In 2019 the Council will return to normal and be fully democratically elected.

Canterbury has been divided into 7 wards – 4 in Christchurch City: Central, South, West and North East.  And three other wards cover the rural areas to the north and south of the City.  You can download maps of where these are from this page.

 

4)      Seven of 11 people on the District Health Board.

Four of the people on the DHB are appointed.  We vote for the other seven. 

Who can stand for election to Local Government?

All New Zealand Citizens can stand for election to any council or community board.  Nominations close in July.  Find out more at www.lgnz.co.nz

How do you find out about local government candidates?

With a little bit of effort, you can find out quite a bit about your local candidates.  The easiest way to find information online (try googling them, for example). Here are a few more places where you can find out more.

• Keep an eye out for information about them in local media, or on Billboards or in your letterbox.
• The local news media will run stories about candidates and their campaigns during the elections. 
• Community newsletters and Facebook groups can also be a way to find out about candidates.  Here in Halswell, we will invite candidates to put information up on this community blog and we will link to those profiles on Facebook and through this newsletter.
• Many candidates have social media profiles and blogs or websites which can help you learn about them and their values.  
• Residents associations and other community groups often run public meetings where candidates can present their views and answer questions from electors.
• Most candidates will provide a ‘candidate profile statement’ of 150 words to the electoral officer with their nomination, and this profile will be included in the information sent to voters.  This information might also be on the local council’s website after Mid August when nominations have closed.
• Another way to learn about people is to ask a few people who you know and trust what they know and who they will vote for and why.  This does not mean you should vote the same way they do (although you might want to). Asking the question and hearing the answer can help you think about your own views.
• Look out for candidates at local events and activities and ask them questions.   
• As it gets closer to the elections, many organisations also send questions to candidates and publicise their answers.  Look out of these - they an help.