A battle is set to begin between Solid Energy and a private developer over the building of a new hydropower scheme using water from Stockton opencast mine, north of Westport.
Solid Energy (SE) plans to appeal against Hydro Development Limited's (HDL) proposed Stockton Plateau hydro plan, and seek consent to use the water for its own scheme.
"We believe that our scheme is a better fit with our coal mining plans and environmental commitments at Stockton," SE chief operating officer Barry Bragg said today.
"At this stage we have no information that says HDL will be able to meet our expectations, or if they do, whether they have a viable project that is the best for the Stockton plateau."
HDL won resource consent to build its scheme, allowing the company to harness tributaries of the Ngakawau River. The plan consists of using polluted water from the coal mines on the Stockton Plateau and channelling it through tunnels, reservoirs and power stations, to generate power before discarding it in an ocean outfall offshore.
But SE is concerned HDL's scheme would interfere with future mining activities.
"We've invested a lot of money in the Stockton Plateau ... we've got a life of somewhere between 20 to 30 (or) 40 years, and we need to have priority rights to the water."
Mr Bragg said SE was willing to talk with HDL about a land access agreement but any agreement would be subject to meeting all SE's expectations.
"We will appeal their consents to the Environment Court to protect our position. If, however, HDL can address our concerns, then I'd expect our appeal could be settled."
SE's proposed scheme would be $70 million cheaper than HDL's estimated construction price tag of $200m.
Mr Bragg said the market would decide which was the better project to proceed.
"It's one thing to get a resource consent, it's another thing to get the finance to be able to go ahead with the project."
HDL consents manager Rebecca Inwood said the company was disappointed by SE's announcement, but it did not come as a surprise.
"They (SE) had indicated they would be taking a neutral stance but when the hearing proceeded, and they came along to speak to their submission, we knew at that stage there might be a significant chance they might appeal."
There had been discussion between both companies leading up to HDL submitting its application. HDL was yet to see SE's project plans but had a general idea.
"I guess when we were saw some of the material, their brochure material, we sort of felt it did seem very similar to our material."
There had been a lot of information sharing at the beginning, Ms Inwood said.
"Obviously they (SE) have been able to use a lot of that information that we've developed along the way - to use for their own purposes.
"It's certainly disappointing that we can't be working closely together to try and resolve the issues."
HDL had designed its scheme so it would not interfere with SE mining activity.
"We're downstream, we're not going to have any constraining effect on existing or their future operations."
The HDL scheme is expected to provide a continuous power supply of about 20 megawatts, with output up to 50MW for shorter periods during and following rainfall.
The company estimated construction would create about 50 jobs.
