Opuha Water has decided to utilise today’s rainfall and resulting higher river flows to release an artificial fresh into the Opuha River. This is to remove nuisance didymo present within the river system. The artificial fresh is scheduled to be released from the Opuha Downstream Weir at approximately 9pm tonight (Friday 4 October). Previous investigations have shown that timing artificial freshes to coincide with naturally higher flows increases their effectiveness in removing nuisance periphyton in the river.
The artificial fresh will see the river levels rise slightly as it passes downstream. To limit impacts on any recreational river users, we have deliberately timed this to occur overnight. However, we still advise river users to be vigilant and be aware of fluctuating water levels over the next 24 hours.