Greenstreet farmers are devastated they haven’t been given permission to divert irrigation water to Greenstreet Creek to avoid the death of fish, eels and other aquatic life, including many indigenous species.

The farmers have watched the small-scale ecological disaster unfold and have done their best to rescue eels and fish in buckets while waiting for an okay from Environment Canterbury (ECan) to divert their irrigation water to save the creek.

Now it’s too late for about 95% of the aquatic life in the creek, with just days left to save the creatures clinging to life in isolated pools.

And ECan has no apologised for its communication over the issue – but says adding additional water during such a dry period would only be a temporary solution.

Local farmer Darryl Butterick said around a dozen farmers and lifestylers bordering the creek have been “running around fixing someone else’s balls-up” while “jumping up and down for weeks” trying to get permission to stop the creek from drying up.

Butterick has been among the farmers who have been to the creek to rescue eels, freshwater crayfish (southern kōura) and other creatures.

“Everyone is pissed off and has been out with buckets.”

When he spoke to the Guardian he thumbed through photo after photo of dead or stranded creatures in the creek. Some were fly-blown but able to be rescued. For many.it was too late.

“The birds are nailing whatever is left.”

A trout named Steven is among the dead. The trout has a distinctive mark on its fin, and a local farmer who saw him everyday on the way to the cow shed named the large trout Steven.

But it’s the loss of indigenous aquatic life that upsets the locals the most.

Butterick has been trying to get permission from ECan for three weeks to divert water into the creek and brought up the urgency at a recent zone committee meeting on February 27.

“I stressed the urgency of it. We can have water in that creek within 12 hours to keep what’s left alive,” said Butterick, who is also the chairperson of the Greenstreet Irrigation Society.

But apart from one phone call, he said ECan had ignored his emails and phone calls. Butterick said other concerned residents had the same response from ECan.

Local farmers had run water down the race to top up the creek in the past, but ECan’s consent review meant they could no longer do that, he said.

ECan was made aware that this would be one of the consequences (of the consent), but they believed it would not happen, he said.

The new rules came into effect in June last year – and it’s only been a matter of seven months for problems to become apparent.

Butterick said there has been a “massive amount of destruction” and as far as he is concerned ECan has effectively run away and hid.

“It’s disappointing that they can get something so wrong and think that hiding will make it go away.

“They’re fiddling while Rome is burning. This is a here-and-now decision.”

Butterick said it was extremely disappointing that a “brilliant little creek” was effectively “buggered” and let to run dry. He estimated 95% of what was in the creek is gone and that the few pools that remained would be dried up within a few days.

For farmers, who are often painted as eco-terrorists, the locals were working to protect local steams and creeks while ECan’s actions were “flat out destroying them”, he said.

Another local, who wished to remain anonymous, said it left them disillusioned when ECan was asking for a 24% increase in ratepayers’ money that is tagged for biodiversity and ecological restoration projects

The Greenstreet Creek would be one among a dozen creeks negatively affected along with springs and wells as an unintended consequence of the changes, Butterick said.

He believed the creek needed an immediate short-term solution and something to prevent it running dry in the future.

“The creek will recover to some extent – but if this happens year after year it will become a dry gully that has a little water flow in summer.”

Butterick said the local farmers had been in touch with local MP James Meager who had also contacted ECan.

Fish & Game New Zealand helped with a rescue mission last week and rescued about 200 upland bully, 50 brown trout, eight eels, eight inganga and one redfin perch and one koura.

The rescue team commented that it was a trout spawning creek with rare finds of perch and koura and that it was also unusual to find inganga that far from the sea.

In a statement ECan zone delivery manager Jennifer Rochford apologised for communicating directly with landowners and impacted consent holders about the issue, but not the wider community.

“We’re sincerely sorry for this omission – we could have responded to community concerns with this information much sooner.

“It’s highly regrettable that there has been a loss of aquatic life in this stream and we acknowledge the fish salvage work undertaken by Fish and Game and the community.”

There were irrigation restrictions and consent conditions in place to protect the overall water quality and flow across the wider Ashburton River catchment – so allowing additional water into this creek was not a straightforward request, she said.

“It’s also unlikely that adding additional water at such a dry period would provide anything other than a very temporary solution.”

All rivers in the Ashburton catchment are currently on full restriction. This means consent holders are prohibited from taking water from any waterway in the catchment, regardless of the purpose.

“In the coming months, if sufficient rainfall occurs, we would then expect to see water naturally in the creek.

“It should be noted that winter 2023 and early spring were relatively wet compared to other years. However, climate conditions have shifted to El Niño and, as a result, the past few months have been warm and dry. With the lack of significant rainfall and lack of snowmelt (from a dry winter) occurring, river flows are decreasing throughout the region, especially in all our foothill and lowland rivers.”

Many river flows are below their minimum flows and most consent holders are on full restriction, including the tributaries and mainstem of the Ashburton/Hakatere River. The temporary discharge of water such as that requested by the consent holders of Greenstreet Creek would not be a long-term solution to protect instream life such as tuna and fish, Rochford said.

“A continual water take and release to Greenstreet Creek would be needed to augment the creek even then, due to dry conditions in the catchment, there would be no guarantee that the flow from Greenstreet Creek would be sufficient to allow connection with mainstem Ashburton flows.”

In a Facebook post Meager said he had spoken with ECan councillor Ian Mackenzie, officers from ECan, and the Minister for the Environment, and encouraged them to allow irrigation water to keep the creek alive for now.

“Be assured that me and my office are aware of this and will demand a solution which protects the river and the landowners’ way of life.”

Quick facts

Greenstreet Creek runs for a stretch of 5 to 6 kilometres and has been enhanced by private and community effort to become a significant biodiverse area that is home to a range of fish, eels, and koura along with invertebrates, plants and birds.

It is regarded as a waterway with high ecological values and has not run dry in the recent past. When levels have been low the creek has been augmented by irrigation water, but with the new consent conditions on the Ashburton River mean this is no longer not an option.

By Sharon Davis