International opposition to plans for 16 dairy farms with up to 17,850 cows in cubicles, in the Omarama and Ohau areas, is resulting in a flood of submissions to Environment Canterbury.
The intense public interest has prompted Environment Canterbury (ECan) to create a special section on its internet home page to cope with the number of inquiries it is receiving.
Publicity about the proposals, which are already causing controversy in New Zealand, with claims of "factory farming", had prompted 640 submissions by Wednesday. When staff arrived at work yesterday morning, another 470 submissions were filed in ECan's electronic mailbox for processing, ECan chief executive Bryan Jenkins said.
At times yesterday, submissions were coming in at the rate of 20 an hour from around New Zealand and overseas.
Dr Jenkins expected the number of submissions to reach 1500 by the end of yesterday.
About 500 submissions have been filed on each of the three companies' proposals.
Publicity about the proposals on overseas websites has prompted submissions from as far away as France and Great Britain, as well as Australia.
Some of the submissions link the issue of animal welfare, arising from housing cows in cubicles full-time for eight months of the year and 12 hours a day for four months, with environmental factors.
The environmental issues include the large amount of effluent the 16 plants would produce - up to almost 1.8 million litres a day - being disposed of by way of irrigation and laying solids on the land.
Submissions to ECan on the plans by two companies - Five Rivers Ltd and Southdown Holdings Ltd - close at 5pm on December 18.
Submissions on the Williamson Holdings Ltd proposal close on January 18.
At this stage, the three applications and submissions will be considered by an independent panel of commissioners early next year on dates yet to be set.
ECan's website is http://ecan.govt.nz