As has been recently reported in the Timaru Courier and the Timaru Herald, the level of the Lake Opuha, South Canterbury's controversial irrigation lake is becoming worryingly low. I took a trip out to the Dam, which is near Fairlie, a couple of weeks back to take some photos.

The South Canterbury region has had a dry end to its winter and this is continuing into spring. We're now nearing the start of the irrigation season, and at this time of year, Opuha would ideally be full.

Taken on 2 October 2011, this photo demonstrates the low level of the lake, with the spillway entrance totally exposed. More...

Living Legends is a community conservation project jointly run by Project Crimson and the Tindall Foundation, with the support of the Department of Conservation and Meridian Energy. The project has a stated goal of planting 80,000 trees nationwide in 2011, and is making a five year investment to plant a total of 150,000 trees by 2015.

For this years Mid/South Canterbury Planting Day, local Rugby Legend Jock Ross was chosen as the Living Legend and ambassador of the planting. Ably supported by over one hundred rugby fans and environmentalists, Jock led the planting of between 2,500 and 3,000 native kanuka, and some native grasses at the Harris Scientific Reserve just south of Ashburton.

The Harris Scientific Reserve is a 10.5 hectare kanuka sanctuary, 2.5 hectares of which is already planted and contained within a natural and undisturbed kanuka border. This stand of kanuka is significant as it is an example of the Canterbury drylands ecosystem that existed prior to settlement and is one of the last remaining stands of its type on the Canterbury plains. More...

An abridged version of this letter was published in the Timaru Herald:

I write in response to Federated Farmers Vice-President Donald Aubrey's recent opinion piece (3 December). I feel that having attended the Mackenzie Country Symposium, I am in a far better position than Aubrey to comment on both the types of people who attended and the content that was covered. More...

With Local Body elections looming it seems that Environment Minister Nick Smith has decided that the proposed changes to the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality are too hot to handle.

Submissions were due to be published on the Ministry for the Environment's web site by the end of last week. However the Minister has now informed his staff that he wants Cabinet to have a look at the proposal and a decision be made by Government before the submissions and the recommendations are made public. This is scheduled for some time in October, which will more than likely follow the conclusion of the Local Body Elections on October 9.

Environment Canterbury and the Timaru District Council both indicated that they lodged submissions. My submission is available here:

Air Quality Standards Submission

This is the submission that I made on the Ministry for the Environment's proposed changes to the standards for Air Quality:

Submission on the proposed amendments to the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality

Name of Submitter: Andrew McMillan

1.0 Introduction

Firstly, I would like to thank the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) for giving me an opportunity to make a submission on the proposed amendments to the air quality standards. With the deadline for full compliance looming and the report cards showing a very mixed bag of results, a review is indeed timely.

The health risks associated with PM10 exposure are well documented and internationally accepted. I happen to live in Timaru, which is in an airshed that consistently appears amongst the worst offenders in the country for PM10 pollution levels. From my point of view, what I’m looking for in terms of policy direction is to have measures put in place that will ensure the worst offenders can finally start to make some progress towards achieving a safe and healthy quality of air. More...

The Green Party AGM was held in Christchurch over the weekend and as part of it we had a pledge session towards World Environment Day. I had been quoted in the paper the previous week as suggesting biking to work was something that people could do to help the environment, and my work colleagues took great delight in pointing out that I drive to work (especially one cheeky colleague who bikes every day). More...

The latest Environment Canterbury (ECan) air pollution figures paint a dreary picture for both Timaru and South Canterbury. All three of the South Canterbury towns monitored (Timaru, Geraldine and Waimate) have trended up for the last two consecutive years. Kaiapoi is the only town in the remainder of the ECan's region to trend upwards.

Timaru's readings are by far the worst of all measured towns, with it's annual high pollution nights of 38 just below it's 10 year average of 42. Christchurch in contrast has only recorded 13 high pollution nights, which is under half it's 10 year average of 29.

Data sourced from www.ecan.govt.nz

The Timaru branch of Forest and Bird hosted Mike Joy, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at Massey University for a talk entitled ‘A wake up call on water’. Accompanied by an excellent PowerPoint presentation, Mike talked about research he has been carrying out, the state of the Manawatu River and the plight of the Long Fin Eel. More...