A view of the Ross Chinese Memorial Garden with the former mine lake causing issues on the garden edge. Photo: Greymouth Star/Brendon McMahon/LDR
An artificial lake that has flooded Ross Chinese Memorial Gardens has been fixed, according to one council - but another disagrees.
Flooding from Ross Lake, which was created by mining in the West Coast town, has been an ongoing problem for the community garden project, which was also hit by vandalism in the past.
Westland District Council promised the lake outlet would be fixed by 6 October, months after it was first warned about the flooding by West Coast Regional Council.
Late last year, district council staff made assurances work to fix the outlet had already been done.
But in June, the regional council found water levels in the lake were above the level permitted in the resource consent.
The district council was told to rectify the issue.
On Tuesday, district council chief executive Simon Bastion said the required outlet work "has been done" and they were awaiting sign-off from the regional council.
However, regional council acting consents and compliance manager Rachel Clark said on Tuesday a recent inspection prompted them to chase up the district council again.
"It was noted that the works had not yet been done," Clark said.
"A further inspection will be undertaken this week to check that the works have now been completed as required," Clark said.
A view of the weir in the foreground, at the outlet to the artificial lake at Ross. Photo: Supplied
The memorial garden opened in April to honour the work of Chinese gold miners in the Ross area, following years of work by Westland Region Environmental Network Incorporated Society.
Group secretary Biddy Manera said as of Tuesday, the promised outlet work had not been fully undertaken in line with the original resource consent.
"Of course it hasn't. It has not been completed, nothing has been done to spec at all," Manera said.
It appeared the outlet had not been lined with rock as was required, she said.
A pipe leading out of the lake had "a big hump" in the middle, with gravel and clay trapped in it, impeding free flow, she said.
It meant the lake remained higher than the permitted level, Manera said.
The delay was disappointing, because they now had trees coming to replace trees lost after previous flooding in the lower level of the garden, she said.
"We're not doing anything more lakeside until it is fixed."
The gardens have a prolonged history of damage from flooding, but also by wilful damage.
Vandalism of the project led to a Ross man being charged with damaging trees in 2022. The man is due to be sentenced next month.
- Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
