Water allocation may be too low to meet farmers' needs

Some farmers could miss out on water for irrigation from the lower Waitaki River because not enough has been allotted in the Waitaki catchment water allocation regional plan.

Yesterday, farmers, led by the Mid River New Applicants' Group, approached Environment Canterbury (ECan) demanding the situation be resolved.

The group's chairman, Matt Ross, said farmers who had waited up to 11 years for consents were becoming increasingly frustrated with delays.

Some, including existing irrigators, faced the possibility of having no water.

The problem arises because the plan, drawn up in 2005 by the government-appointed Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board, allocates 150 million cu m a year of water between Black Point upstream to the Waitaki dam for agriculture and horticulture (irrigation).

Existing consents and new applications total 182 million cu m a year - exceeding what the board allocated.

At the hearings of those consents in Oamaru last year, and during hearings into the Meridian Energy Ltd north bank tunnel hydro-electricity scheme and Meridian Energy Ltd-South Canterbury Irrigation Trust Hunter Downs irrigation scheme, applicants pointed out the 150 million cu m allocation was an error, and the board intended it to be 250 million cu m a year.

Evidence was also given the figure in the plan was based on erroneous data originally supplied to the board.

Three commissioners - former Environment Court judge Prof Peter Skelton (Christchurch), environmental consultant Mike Bowden (Kaiapoi) and freshwater scientist and ecologist Greg Ryder (Dunedin) - heard the lower Waitaki consent applications and were asked to ignore the allocation.

The panel was sympathetic to that, but Prof Skelton had now indicated it would not be able to approve many of the 56 applications between Black Point and the Waitaki dam because they exceeded the allocation.

He asked ECan to consider implementing a plan change increasing the volume of water allocated by the board so the panel could then consider whether or not to grant the applications.

Prof Skelton wants to know by June 15 whether the council will do that.

That request will be considered by ECan's regional planning committee tomorrow.

Yesterday, at a meeting in Oamaru of ECan's southern area committee, lower Waitaki farmers vented their frustration and made it clear action was needed.

The committee decided to ask the council to deal with the matter in a timely and efficient manner, ensuring the policies and principles of the plan were implemented, along with pursuing the outcomes sought by irrigators, and notify Prof Skelton by June 15.

Mr Ross said the process so far had cost farmers more than $500,000.

Farmers should not have to pay to rectify mistakes in the plan.

The delay could mean some farmers might miss out while new applicants received water.

"We need an option that generates a result because applicants have carried the risk for too long," he said.