MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
|
|
Archives
|
Reader offers sand mining caution Dargaville’s Barry Jones has assumed the role of local historian following the passing of Noel Hilliam and has been interested in the recent articles in the Focus regarding the objections to sand mining in the area.
“Your editorials take me back to my own Kaipara Harbour experience over twenty years ago,” he says. “The effects of a single sand barge extracting millions of cubic metres of sand over several years has dramatically changed the shoreline.” Sand removal was confined to a narrow area with full channel flow in the belief that the Kaipara’s huge flow would compensate for the extraction. However the opposite proved to be the case and it took considerable pressure from local observers to have the operation moved to elsewhere in the harbour. The sand mining altered the natural flow to the extent that Midge Bay, so named after a wreck of the early 1900s, ceased to exist, to be replaced by a 300 metre beach of dunes. “In certain circumstances sand mining can be beneficial but can also have serious effects if not undertaken with caution,” adds Barry. - PHOTO/SUPPLIED |
|
CONTACT US
|