Farmers and other applicants should have decisions by
Christmas on their applications for water from the upper
Waitaki catchment.
Some applicants have been waiting more than a decade for an
answer.
An Environment Canterbury panel which is considering 111
resource consent applications to take, use and discharge
water in the catchment west of the Waitaki dam plans to start
releasing its decisions in two parts, from November 21.
The first, part A, is the overall decision and how the panel
decided on that strategy. It would be applied to decisions on
individual applications.
The second, part B, will be the decisions on each individual
application, which include proposals by three companies to
develop 16 dairy farms with up to 17,850 cows housed in
cubicles at sites in the Ohau and Omarama basins.
Those plans by Southdown Holdings Ltd, Williamson Holdings
Ltd and Five Rivers caused national controversy, led to the
involvement of the Government and sparked claims of factory
farming.
After that, the three companies put up alternative proposals
for more traditional farming to be considered by the
Environment Canterbury panel.
In August, panel chairman Paul Rogers issued a minute
indicating "in all likelihood" decisions would be available
in the week commencing November 21.
He has now issued another minute which said the decisions
would be in two parts.
Part A, the overarching decision, and several individual
decisions would be released in the week of November 21.
The panel would release the remaining individual decisions
from November 28 and continue until completed, likely to be
before December 23.
Some of the applications date back to early 2000, but were
deferred by the Government while the Waitaki catchment water
allocation regional plan was prepared. It was completed in
2005.
The panel started hearing the applications in September 2009
and finished in May last year. Since then, it has been under
pressure, particularly from the three dairy farm development
companies, to deliver decisions.
Most of the applications are for water for irrigation,
including new developments and renewals of existing rights.
The panel consists of Mr Rogers (a Christchurch lawyer),
environmental consultant Mike Bowden, of Kaiapoi, cultural
authority Edward Ellison, of the Otago Peninsula, and water
quality consultant Jim Cooke, of Wellington.
david.bruce@odt.co.nz
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.