The team behind the proposed irrigation scheme costing between $150 million and $200 million in the Waimate district will not know whether it will get water from the Waitaki River until later this year; almost two years after its resource-consent application was heard by Environment Canterbury.
The Meridian Energy-South Canterbury Irrigation Trust Hunter Downs irrigation scheme applied to take up to 20.5cumecs from the river to irrigate up to 40,000ha, which was considered at a hearing spread over 19 days in Timaru, finishing on December 19, 2007.
At the end of the hearing, the chairman of the panel hearing the applications, Prof Peter Skelton, indicated a decision would not be made until late last year, after 56 other applications to take water from the river below the Waitaki dam had been heard.
The hearing of those other applications took place in Oamaru during August and September, and Prof Skelton then indicated no decisions would be made before the end of last year.
However, reaching a decision was delayed because most of the applications related to the stretch of the river between the dam and Black Point, and not enough water was allocated in the Waitaki catchment water allocation regional plan to cater for them all.
In May, Prof Skelton indicated the panel would not be able to approve most of the applications because of a lack of water, and sought an assurance from Environment Canterbury (Ecan) it would change the allocation plan to take care of that.
Ecan decided it would initiate a plan change to increase the amount of water available for irrigation, but not immediately.
Any plan change would include other changes, and not just the allocation for irrigation.
This week, Prof Skelton said the hearings panel had reassessed its position and it was unlikely all decisions on applications in the lower river, including for Hunter Downs, would be completed before the end of October.
"The panel will do its best to reach completion earlier, but the parties should be aware that this is its current expectation," he said.
Priority was being given to a few "stand-alone" applications, but decisions on Hunter Downs, and applications for irrigation water between the dam and Black Point and in the Hakataramea catchment, would take longer to complete.
Prof Skelton pointed out that about 25 decisions had to be made and written.
"This takes time if it is done properly, which is no doubt the expectation of the parties," he said.
