Juno Hayes was joined by his Central Otago counterpart, Dr Malcolm Macpherson, in saying talk of the power company reconsidering dams at places like Luggate, Queensberry and Tuapeka Mouth was more than welcome.
Mr Hayes said he had "no objection to development on the river" because of the massive amount of money it would pump into the local economy.
This would have to be weighed up against the potential loss of land, he said.
[comment caption=Would further hydro-electric development be a boon or a bane for Central Otago?]But news power companies were again considering the river was not unexpected.
Contact was believed to still own most, if not all, of the Beaumont land it bought when planning its Tuapeka Mouth-Beaumont dam in the late 1980s.
That project was officially deferred in 1996.
He and his council have previously asked Contact about its plans for the area only to be told there was nothing on the agenda.
Transit told the council this year a replacement for the Beaumont bridge was planned some time in the next 10 years.
If Contact goes ahead with a lower Clutha dam, the Beaumont community as it stands today would be flooded.
Beaumont Residents Group co-ordinator Margaret Healy last night said the news had come as "a bombshell to us, frankly".
The group, which meets only two or three times a year to plan beautification and other projects around the township, is expected to call a meeting to discuss a response.
Meanwhile, Dr Macpherson said companies like Contact Energy were likely to handle the entire hydro-electric process a lot differently than the approach taken in the 1990s.
Last week, he pre-empted Contact by predicting some former hydro-electric projects would be revisited.
Dr Macpherson yesterday suggested it was only a matter of time before more dams were built on the river.
Some people would object to the river "being hydro and being a lake" essentially from Lake Wanaka to Tuapeka Mouth if proposed dams at Luggate, Queensberry and Beaumont went ahead, he said.
