River and Stream Health

Rivers and streams have important natural and cultural values and are also vital resources for drinking water, farming, recreational activities, managing stormwater, and industrial use. Monitoring water quality and ecosystem health is essential because human activities and discharges from various sources affect the quality of water and its suitability for human use and biodiversity.

What are we monitoring?

Periphytons (mix of algae, fungi, and bacteria) including Cyanobacteria is monitored/surveyed at a number of known hotspots and E.coli is measured in some of the popular swimming spots

Toxic Algae Cyanobacteria

Toxic algae (also known as Cyanobacteria) is naturally present in many New Zealand waterways. It's found in ‘clean’ rivers but can grow when river flows are low and stable, and temperatures are consistently warm. Council routinely monitors its level and informs the community when action needs to be taken. Learn more in the Toxic Algae section.

E.coli

E. coli (short for Escherichia coli) and enterococci are a type of bacteria commonly found in the guts of warm-blooded mammals (including people) and birds. When E.coli or enterococci are found in high levels at swimming spots, it can be harmful to humans if ingested. Learn more about E.coli here.

Results and Annual Summaries

Current conditions and results from the past 5 years can be viewed on the Freshwater Monitoring website LAWA. All Nelson City Council are sent here for public consumption.

The LAWA (Land, Air, Water Aotearoa) website is a collaboration between New Zealand’s 16 regional and unitary councils, the Ministry for the Environment (MFE), Cawthron Institute and Massey University.

The Nelson City Council's annual monitoring summaries reports on the health of Nelson's rivers and streams, tracking whether the condition of these waterways is improving or deteriorating. It also identifies specific issues and the potential causes of the degradation of our rivers or streams.

Nelson’s streams and rivers are classified from grades A to E (Excellent to Very Degraded) based on regular water quality and stream sediment monitoring across 28 sites. A long-term water classification has been derived from monitoring data collected from 2000. The long-term classification provides a ‘benchmark’ and better indicator of the health of our rivers and streams than annual results as it reduces the influences of short term events, such as floods.

For monitoring summaries from 2020 – 2023, visit our Periphyton webpage.

What are we doing about it - Initiatives to improve water quality

Working with Land Owners

Nelson City Council provides free advice for landowners and financial assistance toward fencing livestock out from waterways and native plants for riparian planting and biodiversity enhancement. Several residents have taken up the offer of Council assistance to fence and plant along the Lud, Wakapuaka River and Stoke streams. Take a look at our Environmental Grants scheme page or contact the teams via email at healthy.streams@ncc.govt.nz .

Initiatives to improve water quality

The Friends of the Maitai community group was established in 2013. The group promotes a collaborative responsibility for the health of our waterways and gives community members a gathering place to learn about the issues that face our river and work together to take positive action. For more information about Friends of the Maitai contact friendsofmaitai@gmail.com.

The Waimaori Streamcare Programme works with schools and local people to actively monitor the health of streams through practical hands-on-workshops at the riverside. This raises community awareness about water quality and also brings a cultural perspective as to why clean water matters. For more information about Waimaori contact waimaori@ncc.govt.nz.

Council is collaborating with NIWA, the Friends of the Maitai and the Wakapuaka River Care Group to trial a new community stream monitoring programme. The NIWA led citizen science project will assess whether community monitoring data can be used alongside regional council water quality monitoring and add value to the national environmental picture. For more information about NIWA’s community monitoring projects, visit www.niwa.co.nz.

Project Mahitahi has an overarching goal to create a river that is safe to swim in and take kai from. The integrated projects are addressing a range of issues affecting water quality. For more information email project.mahitahi@ncc.govt.nz or visit the Project Mahitahi web page.

Council will be working with community groups to discuss values and water uses as part of the process to establish Fresh Water Management Units and monitoring requirements under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

Ncc Work in Progress

Enhancement of riparian margins and instream habitat for wildlife in urban streams, as part of the flood recovery remediation work.
Working with local Iwi to improve the wellbeing of the Nelson environment through site assessments using Iwi Cultural Health Indicators, building stronger relationships and targeting actions.
Working with Tasman District Council to identify and improve whitebait spawning habitat and establish a network of native fish monitoring sites across the region.
Working with Landcare Research to characterise river behaviour to achieve better gravel management and erosion control in North Nelson.
Working with NIWA to evaluate the most appropriate technical solutions to improve existing storm water systems and minimise contaminants from roads and adjoining land reaching rivers and streams.
Working with Cawthron to study the water quality from the bottom of the Maitai Dam and how its discharge to the Maitai impacts on the aquatic animal and plant communities and how this can be reduced.
Working with other regional councils and local government to share national water quality trends on the Land and Water web portal. For more information the LAWA website.
Review of the long-term water quality classification for each monitoring site, incorporating data from 2000 to 2012.
Facilitating and supporting environmental education through primary school to college utilising Nelson City Council monitoring results.
Investigating bacteria contamination in lower Maitai from the storm water system, and potential cross-connections in other Nelson urban areas.
Working closely with the District Health Board Health Protection Officers and Cawthron to find more effective ways to reduce the potential public risk of toxic blue green algae in our waterways.

Biodiversity Fish Surveys

Fish review and distribution maps

This report provides a summary of the freshwater fish species and their known distributions within the jurisdiction of the Nelson City Council (NCC). Records of fish species (including freshwater crayfish) have been taken predominantly from The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) freshwater fish database (FFDB).

Please contact the NCC Environmental Programmes team at paul.fisher@ncc.govt.nz or 03 546 0200 for further information about freshwater fish species and opportunities to participate with fish surveys and stream restoration projects.

Fish Species Sightings:

Freshwater fish sightings webmap

Our rivers and streams are home to an amazing variety of fish, eels and other aquatic creatures. Check out the map below to find out what lives in your stream!

Freshwater Fish Sightings