The future of a 40-year-old Waitaki Valley irrigation scheme could be in doubt after an Environment Canterbury resource consents decision set a five-year deadline to improve efficiency in its use of water.
Upper Waitaki Community Irrigation Company applied to renew six resource consents to irrigate 1925ha in the Waitaki Valley, asking for a 35-year term, but was granted only five years.
The decision also reduced the annual volume of water for irrigation from 26.3 million cubic metres to 22 million cubic metres.
It plans to appeal the decision to the Environment Court.
Company chairman Geoff Keeling on Thursday raised doubts about what it could achieve in five years, what the rules would be then and whether it can raise finance to do it.
In the past 18 months the company has spent about $75,000 on the consents' process. It faces at least that again in five years.
The panel hearing the application criticised a lack of progress on more efficient water use, both through the company's distribution and on-farm use, which is mostly border-dyking.
However, the company had put forward a three-step, 12-year plan to improve efficiency and said it could not move while its consents were in doubt since starting the renewal process in 1999.
Mr Keeling said the reduced water volume had "huge ramifications" for farmers; the five-year consent term was disastrous. Most irrigation consents had a 35-year term, a few 21 years.
"No-one denies that things must change ... but it can't happen overnight. We wanted a lead-in time so the company could do it in a co-ordinated manner with a clear goal."
The company and farmers also lacked surety of a longer term for the consents for the capital investment needed. There was no right of renewal.
Converting to spray irrigation cost $4500-$6000 a hectare, with increased energy and maintenance costs.
Banks were unlikely to lend on a five-year consents' term.
The company "had no option" but to appeal, he said.
