Farmers concerned by council's lack of action to stop fish dying in dried up Ashburton stream

Lack of action by the Canterbury Regional Council has resulted in the death of native fish and crayfish, Mid Canterbury farmers near the Greenstreet Creek on the outskirts of Ashburton say.

Farmers raised concerns that the creek was getting low with Environment Canterbury weeks ago - and suggested water could be pumped from nearby O'Shea Creek to get it flowing again.

But farmer Darryl Butterick, several kilometres away from the stream, said despite many desperate calls and emails - the council never responded and now the creek has run dry.

"We had a meeting at the local hall a couple of nights ago, and we've got a lot of people on small blocks further down, lifestyle blocks and stuff like that," he said.

"Everyone's concerned and everyone's highly pissed off that ECan has just refused to stand up and be counted to the point that they won't return phone calls or emails at all."

Photos of the dry creek showed dead fish, eels and fresh water crayfish.

Butterick said over the past 30 years when the Greenstreet Creek would get dry, farmers topped it up with irrigation water.

But a couple of years ago, changes were made to irrigation consents which stopped them from doing it - hence why farmers have been asking the regional council for guidance.

"All we've got to do, it would take 20 minutes to wind up a gate and take that water down to your system, and it would take probably 12 hours for that water to get down ... but within 12 hours Greenstreet Creek could be flowing again," Butterick said.

Canterbury regional councillor Ian Mackenzie said he was "really frustrated and annoyed" by the situation.

"I think it's a reflection of a culture at Environment Canterbury where urban councillors think that anything that goes on in the rural area, they've gotta have rules and regulations to control it," MacKenzie said.

"This is about having too many rules and regulations on the Ashburton River plan, which is creating problems."

In a statement, Canterbury Regional Council - ECan - said allowing extra water into a now-dried-up Ashburton stream in order to stop fish dying was not a straightforward activity.

ECan said it regretted not talking to the wider community about the issue, but said it has been dealing directly with affected landowners and consent holders.

It said the loss of aquatic life was "highly regrettable" and it "acknowledges the fish salvage work undertaken by Fish and Game and the community".

It went on to say irrigation restrictions and consent conditions were in place to protect water quality and flow in the wider Ashburton River catchment and allowing more water into this creek was not straightforward.

"It's unlikely adding additional water at such a dry period would provide anything other than a very temporary solution."

The council said it was immediately addressing its shortfall in communication when issues like this occur.

All rivers in the Ashburton catchment were currently on full water-take restriction.

Meanwhile, Fish and Game's chief executive for the central South Island, Steve McKnight, said the dry conditions making streams disconnect from their rivers were the worst they had seen in about a decade.

"We're seeing the impact of a very dry summer and it's probably for about the first time in 10 years.

"So the last really dry one that we saw was in 2014, 2015. So I suppose there's been a lot of changes that have gone on in the last 10 years that we're now seeing come to fruition in conditions that they haven't been exposed to before.

"So things are gonna be a bit tight for a wee bit longer."

McKnight said Fish and Game was monitoring hotspots around the region's Hakataramea, Opihi and Opuha rivers.

He said everybody - including local landowners, farmers and regulators - could do their bit.

"We're not just salvaging trout or anything like that, we're actually salvaging everything that we can find and putting it back into waterways that we think are going to be able to sustain that," McKnight said.

"And I think that's the the best bet, so if people are seeing it in their backyard, grab your bucket and find out where the next big pool or running water is and and get the aquatic life there."

McKnight urged any landowners with streams under severe stress to reach out to their local catchment groups, regional council or others - as collaboration was key to seeing benefits for irrigation and the general health of the river.