B-1 - Area 1, Coromandel Forest Park – Assessment of Environmental Effects 23 communities indicated high-quality instream habitats. The channels provide diverse habitats with numerous bedrock platforms and large boulders often narrowing the channel and creating hydrological features such as chutes, cascades and waterfalls. Riffle-pool-run sequences were abundant across all sites, with pools having a mixture of depths. A 4 m high waterfall on the Wharekirauponga Stream limits fish passage. However, Boffa Miskell (2022a) identifies koaro, long fin eel, short jaw kokopu, red fin bully, torrent fish and smelt as all being present. The warm spring (19°C to 20°C)3 located approximately 5 m from the true right bank of the Wharekirauponga Stream just upstream of the WKP3 flow gauging site (see Figure 11) emerges as a pool heavy in orange algae. Beyond the pool, the water forms a shallow sheet flow (also heavy in bed orange algae) for 5 m then falls down a small bank into the Wharekirauponga Stream (Figure 16). Sampling revealed that the warm spring has moderately raised levels of sulfates, sodium and metals and has a calcium bicarbonate dominant water type. It is shallow, has high algae content and is elevated above the Wharekirauponga Stream. Boffa Miskell (2022a) identify it as being unsuitable for macroinvertebrates or fish and as providing minimal aquatic habitat. Overall, while it moderates the normal macro-invertebrate and floral community, Boffa Miskell (2022a) consider the warm spring is not so unusual as to support unique flora or fauna communities, and conclude it has low ecological value. 3 Noting that the warm spring does not constitute geothermal water as per the Waikato Regional Plan definition of that term.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2NDg3