Tarawera River

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tarawera River
Tarawera River.jpg
Data
location Region Bay of Plenty (Region) , North Island (New Zealand)
River system Tarawera River
origin Lake Tarawera
38 ° 11 ′ 2 ″  S , 176 ° 29 ′ 58 ″  E
Source height 299  m
muzzle At Matata in the Bay of Plenty coordinates: 37 ° 53 ′ 22 ″  S , 176 ° 47 ′ 14 ″  E 37 ° 53 ′ 22 ″  S , 176 ° 47 ′ 14 ″  E
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference 299 m
Bottom slope 5 ‰
length 60 km
Catchment area 948 km²
Small towns Kawerau
The Tarawera Falls

The Tarawera Falls

The Tarawera River is a river in the Bay of Plenty region on the North Island of New Zealand .

geography

The river has its origin in the only outflow of Lake Tarawera , which is located at an altitude of 299  m and is located northwest of the Mount Tarawera volcano . From there, the river initially runs in a few arcs in a north-easterly direction and then swings north between the small town of Kawerau and the Mount Edgecumbe volcano . The river gives up its initial meander shape in the plain of Edgecumbe and then flows in a more straight line towards its estuary, 2.5 km east of the village of Matata , where it flows into the Bay of Plenty .

The river has a length of 60 km, a water catchment area of ​​948 km 2 and an annual mean water flow rate of 26.2 m 3 / s at Awakaponga, around three kilometers from the mouth of the river.

Tarawera Falls

Three kilometers northeast of the origin of the Tarawera River are the Tarawera Falls , several waterfalls emerging from a rock wall that are up to 65 m high. The rocks come from a lava flow from Mount Tarawera , which contributed to the formation of the waterfalls around 11,000 years ago.

Pollution of the river

In the 1990s, locals put up signs that read “Black Drain” to warn of pollution in the river.

By far the largest polluter of the river is the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill , which was founded in 1955 by Norske Skog Tasman in Kawerau and has been in the hands of the Norwegian company NS Norway since September 2018 . A publication from 1997 showed that at that time 160 million liters of treated wastewater per day in the paper mill that produces paper for newspaper production was discharged into the river and that the wastewater was not cleaned at all before 1971.

In addition to the inputs from the paper mill, there is also the sewage from the town of Kawerau and the pollution from the surrounding farms on the lower reaches of the river. In a study of the coloring and visibility in the river, which was carried out in July and August 2007 and in January and February 2008, the author found that, compared to measurements from 1993, the transmittance of light in the water of the river increased the measuring point in question has improved by 50% and the color of the river has changed from blue-green to dark brown, which can be attributed to changed bleaching processes in the paper mill. But the river water cannot yet be considered clean.

literature

  • Rowan Taylor, Ian Smith and others: The State of New Zealand's Environment . Ministry for the Environment , Wellington 1997, ISBN 0-478-09000-5 (English, online [PDF; 10.1 MB ; accessed on October 1, 2018]).
  • Tarawera River Catchment Plan . Bay of Plenty Regional Council , Whakatāne February 1, 2004, Physical Description of the Tarawera River Catchment , p. 25–31 (English, online [PDF; 150 kB ; accessed on October 1, 2018]).
  • Stephen Park : Color and Clarity of the Tarawera River 1991-2008 . Bay of Plenty Regional Council , Whakatāne February 2008 (English, online [PDF; 2,3 MB ; accessed on October 1, 2018]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Topo maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed October 1, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Coordinates and longitudes were determined using Goggle Earth Pro Version 7.3.1.4507 on October 1st, 2018
  3. ↑ a b Upper and Lower Tarawera . Land Air Water Aotearoa , accessed October 1, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Park : Color and Clarity of the Tarawera River 1991-2008 . 2008, p.  3 .
  5. ^ Tarawera River Catchment Plan . 2004, p.  29 .
  6. ↑ Tarawera Falls Track . Department of Conservation , accessed October 1, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Park : Color and Clarity of the Tarawera River 1991-2008 . 2008, p.  2 .
  8. ^ Norske Skog Tasman . Norske Skog , accessed October 1, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Chris Hutching : Foreign buyer saves 160 jobs at Tasman pulp and paper mill . In: stuff - business . Fairfax Media , September 27, 2018, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  10. ^ Taylor, Smith : The State of New Zealand's Environment . 1997, p.  46 .
  11. ^ Taylor, Smith : The State of New Zealand's Environment . 1997, p.  39 .
  12. ↑ Park : Color and Clarity of the Tarawera River 1991-2008 . 2008, p.  9 .
  13. ↑ Park : Color and Clarity of the Tarawera River 1991-2008 . 2008, p.  4 .