A Clarks Junction farmer is threatening to prevent the Dunedin City Council accessing his land to repair and maintain one of the city's main water supply pipelines, unless the council allows him to have a new connection for a stock water supply.
City council staff have sought a legal opinion and say they are confident access to pipeline infrastructure is not at the property owner's discretion.
John MacDonald, from Mt Gowrie Station, who put his case to city councillors yesterday at a public forum, said he just wanted the council to "play the game" as he and previous owners had by allowing them access to the pipeline for 77 years.
He said he first applied in 1994 to the council for the new out-of-water-supply-area connection to the Deep Creek raw water pipeline, which runs through his farm.
He needed the water to feed two 30,000-litre tanks for storage. The water would be used as an emergency back-up raw water supply for stock.
That application was declined on the basis no more connections were to occur on the Deep Creek line.
Since then, Mr MacDonald said other farmers in the area had been allowed to take water from another water supply, but that was not an option for him.
While those arrangements had been made permanent, he was not allowed to take water from the Deep Creek pipeline.
"Where do I stand in that?" he asked.
He most needed water in summer, when 20% of Dunedin's population was absent, he said, and he would be surprised if his need for water was at peak times for metropolitan Dunedin.
There were already seven historical connections from the Deep Creek and Deep Stream line to farms in the Rocklands to Hindon area, including two on Mr MacDonald's farm.
Council staff are recommending councillors decline Mr MacDonald's most recent application, made in February this year, because it was against policy, could put added stress on the pipe, and another connection could further complicate things when the pipe and the Deep Stream raw water pipeline were replaced with a single pipe in the future.
He said he could not pump water from his other connections because of the terrain.
There was already a valve 100m from where he wanted the connection and it would be "very simple" to add an outlet.
In a report to be considered by the council's infrastructure services committee today, acting water and waste services manager Laura McElhone said although it was not good technical practice to have connections fed directly from trunk pipelines, especially one of this age, condition, length and remote location, preliminary investigation had shown the connection would not adversely affect existing pressures on the pipeline.
However, the management of existing small-volume connections in the area could pose significant challenges and costs to the council when renewing the pipelines to a single pipeline, her report said.
She said the council had got a legal opinion and did not accept Mr MacDonald had ever allowed the council any greater access rights than the basic level guaranteed under law.
She noted he had raised several other issues, including gaining access to the current point of supply on another of his connections and not having to pay the $5000 fee others had been required to pay for out-of-supply-area connections, a waiver which staff also recommended councillors opposed.
Councillors will consider the application today during a meeting of the council's infrastructure services committee.
