A small hydro dam on the Nevis River is a viable project, the Environment Court was told yesterday.
The Central Otago Environmental Society had earlier aired the view there was no "credible" hydro project planned for the Nevis and its counsel, Mike Holm, said he had the impression "very little beyond speculative conceptual thinking has gone into the Nevis hydro project".
Pioneer Generation is the company behind the proposal and its asset manager, Peter Mulvihill, gave evidence yesterday that as an engineer, he was "confident" such a project was viable.
Cross-examined by Mr Holm, Mr Mulvihill said even though the scaled-back project would have small storage, transmission options had not been costed - and even if it had to shut down occasionally for kayakers to use the river - the project was still viable.
The issue was being discussed before Judge Jon Jackson, and commissioners John Mills and Kathryn Edmonds in Queenstown as part of the appeal against amending the water conservation order on the Nevis River.
A special tribunal appointed by the Ministry for the Environment recommended the existing water order be changed to ban damming or diversion of the river.
Pioneer, Whitewater New Zealand and the New Zealand and Otago Fish and Game Councils all objected to that recommendation, so the matter has been referred to the Environment Court.
The court will report its findings to Minister for the Environment Amy Adams.
Mr Mulvihill agreed the plans for the dam were not finalised, so were "dynamic".
Pioneer counsel Kerry Smith told the court earlier this week the generation company was not applying for resource consent but wanted to protect the ability to apply for consent in the future, under the constraints of the existing water conservation order.
Pioneer had already said it would limit any dam so the 14ha lake created would not go beyond the Nevis Crossing bridge.
The lake would be about half the size of Butchers Dam reservoir, near Alexandra, Mr Mulvihill said.
Counsel for the Central Otago District Council, Jayne Macdonald, denied an environmental society allegation the council was "promoting new development over and above environmental or landscape protection".
She said the council had not developed any stance on the outcome of any resource consent application for a hydro dam on the Nevis River.
The council opposed the water order amendment because it believed the resource consent process was the appropriate way to consider whether damming should occur on the Nevis.
The Otago Regional Council believed the proposed amendments were unjustified, counsel Alastair Logan said.
Whitewater New Zealand spokesman Glenn Murdoch gave evidence about why the Nevis River was special to kayakers.
Although the river flow would be maintained for kayaking if a hydro dam went ahead, a structure like that would ruin the experience for kayakers, he said.
"The kayaking experience is not just the river; it's the whole package."
