More water available

Farmers needing water for irrigation from the lower Waitaki River now have a better chance of getting it, after a decision released yesterday by Environment Canterbury (ECan).

There were fears there was not enough water available between the Waitaki dam and Black Point to grant all but a few of 52 new applications, or renew existing resource consents under the Waitaki catchment water allocation regional plan, prepared by the government-appointed Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board in 2005.

Now, an ECan panel made up of three commissioners - former Environment Court judge Prof Peter Skelton (Christchurch), environmental consultant Mike Bowden (Kaiapoi) and freshwater scientist and ecologist Greg Ryder (Dunedin) - has decided to make extra water available to meet the demand.

That followed an indication from the panel in May that, unless the situation could be resolved, it might not be able to grant an application it considered at a hearing in Oamaru in August and September last year.

The situation bedevilled and frustrated applicants and the panel for almost two years, but now, with contingencies, has been resolved with a decision released yesterday on one of the resource consent applications.

When the board prepared its plan it said it would provide for existing and future irrigation needs in the catchment.

Between the Waitaki dam and Black Point it allocated 150 million cu m of water a year for irrigation.

But existing use and new applications totalled more than 180 million cu m, leaving a shortfall of about 37 million cu m.

Farmers spent more than $500,000 preparing applications for the hearing and made several suggestions to overcome the shortfall, including that the figure in the plan was not correct.

The suggestions were not accepted by the panel and it indicated that, because of the shortfall, most applications did not comply and might not be granted.

However, advice from an ECan consents project leader, Gillian Ensor, about how the allocation board originally set its figures, persuaded the hearings panel to make an additional provision of 37 million cubic metres a year to meet the shortfall between the Waitaki dam and Black Point: an additional take of 1.8cumecs.

Ms Ensor told the panel figures provided to the board excluded diversions (water taken from the river but returned to it and not used) and excluded some mining permits used for irrigation but calculated on year-round use.

Hence, the board's calculation of the allocation may not have been adequate in the light of the way figures had been calculated by ECan, she said.

Yesterday, in its decision on a resource consent application by Sunny Downs Limited to take groundwater for irrigation, the panel ruled on the lack of water, creating a precedent for all the other decisions it will now make.

david.bruce@odt.co.nz