The release will come after public submissions closed on June 18, with those results already made available to key stakeholder the Manuherekia Reference Group (MRG).
The five flow options tabled range from 1200 litres per second (option one) up to 3000 litres per second (option five).
Council chairman Andrew Noone said the Manuherikia was a complex catchment but national requirements underpinning the planning framework the council was working towards were clear.
"The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 highlights the hierarchy of obligations in Te Mana o te Wai that prioritises, first, the health and wellbeing of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems; second, the health needs of people (such as drinking water); and third, the ability of people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural wellbeing, now and in the future."
The ORC expression of Te Mana o te Wai, prepared in partnership with Ngai Tahu, was within the council’s notified proposed Otago regional policy statement and the role of the ORC and the MRG in the process, including working on the scenarios outlined in the consultation document, were clear, Mr Noone said.
The council was the ultimate decision-maker about policy direction, and the MRG was a forum to identify and assist the role of Te Mana o te Wai in the plan development process under the Resource Management Act.
It was also tasked with identifying the full range of possible solutions for improving the environmental and economic state including, if necessary, forming a view on the rate and scale of investment required to progress positive change, he said.
"This is the point we are at now, and why the consultation document was released for community feedback.
"The Manuherekia flow scenarios within that document were arrived at through a long process of extensive data collection, modelling and analysis."
More than 1000 groups and individuals had made submissions on the scenarios put forward for consultation.
"The members of the Manuherekia Reference Group have the analysis of those submissions, and a report will be publicly released at the end of next week."
Suggestions of a delay were not representative of the land and water plan work programme that had been shared with councillors in public, he said.
The Manuherikia part of the land and water plan, and the remaining freshwater management units in the plan, would be notified as part of the entire proposed plan in 2023.
The pending public release was cold comfort to Otago regional councillor Gary Kelliher, who said the process had taken too long, had been "a train wreck of ignoring reality" and would seriously divide the Central Otago community.
He also questioned the findings being made available to the MRG.
"Although maybe I shouldn’t be [concerned], given the process over the past couple of years has been a train wreck of ignoring reality."
Any recommendation of flows that were unachievable, or not supported by suitable science, would end any future goodwill and ensure "battle lines are well and truly drawn."
"Our community deserves better than this and has done for some time."
It is understood that councillors will meet on August 12 to discuss which minimum flow option will be adopted.
- By Jared Morgan and Mary-Jo Tohill
