Groundwater and Surface Water Hydrology in the Lake Rotorua Catchment, New Zealand, and Community Involvement with Lake Water Quality Restoration

Water quality in Lake Rotorua, New Zealand, deteriorated since the 1960s because of excessive phytoplankton growths due principally to increasing nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake waters. Nutrient concentrations in eight of the nine major streams feeding Lake Rotorua have increased since 1965. The groundwater system has a key role in the hydrology of the Lake Rotorua catchment and the groundwater system is probably the control on the time delay between intensification of agricultural land use and response of surface water quality. All major, and many minor streams, in the catchment are fed by springs. Two lithological units are most important to groundwater flow in the Lake Rotorua catchment: Mamaku Ignimbrite, erupted in about 200,000 years ago and Huka Formation sediments which filled the caldera left by the Mamaku Ignimbrite eruption. Rainfall recharge to groundwater in the groundwater catchment of Lake Rotorua is estimated as approximately 17300 L/s. A calibrated steady-state groundwater flow model estimates that approximately 11100 L/s of this flow discharges into streams and then into the lake and the balance travels directly to Lake Rotorua as groundwater discharge through the lake bed. Land use has impacted on groundwater quality. Median Total Nitrogen (TN) values for shallow groundwater sites are highest for the dairy land use (5.965 mg/L). Median TN values are also relatively high for shallow sites with urban-road and cropping land uses (4.710 and 3.620 mg/L, respectively). Median TN values for all other uses are in the 1.4 to 1.5 mg/L range. Policy development for Lake Rotorua includes defining regional policies on water and land management and setting an action plan for Lake Rotorua restoration. Aims in the action plan include: definition of the current nutrient budget for Lake Rotorua, identification of nutrient reduction targets and identification of actions to achieve targets. Current actions to restore Lake Rotorua water quality include: treatment of Tikitere geothermal nitrogen inputs to Lake Rotorua, upgrade of Rotorua City sewage plant, new sewage reticulation and alum dosing in selected streams to remove phosphorus.