Battle lines are being drawn by a quartet of heavy-hitting submitters who oppose the uplifting of jet-boat restrictions in the scenic and remote Hunter River at the head of Lake Hawea.
A proposal to amend the Queenstown Lakes District Council's navigation safety bylaw and uplift a speed limit of five knots on the Hunter River is being opposed by the Department of Conservation, the Otago Fish and Game Council, the Upper Clutha Forest and Bird organisation, and the Upper Clutha Environmental Society.
However, Otago and Southland-based spokesmen for the New Zealand Jetboating Association said the four groups were using "emotional issues" to argue their case and that their concerns were already addressed under the regulations in the council's district plan.
Southland Rivers Jetboating spokesman Eddie McKenzie said the Queenstown Lakes councillors had "shifted the goalposts" by sending a recommendation to uplift the speed limit back for reconsideration by a working party.
Considering amenity values and the environmental effects of jet-boats on the Hunter River "just wasn't needed", he said.
The amenity arguments and environmental concerns were dealt with during six years of negotiations for the district plan and were supposed to apply for all the rivers in the Queenstown Lakes, Mr McKenzie said.
The vice-chairman of Otago Jetboating, Fraser Morrison, said the river could be shared by different users and the proposal to uplift the five-knot limit only applied for six months of the year.
Submissions released to the Otago Daily Times by Doc, Fish and Game, Forest and Bird, and the environmental society outlined similar concerns about the degradation of the Hunter River and the surrounding valley's remote wilderness area.
Noise, increased water wake, and safety concerns, alongside threats to stocks of fish and native birds, were all issues being raised in submissions against allowing motorised watercraft to navigate up the Hunter River.
The river was considered a relatively unmodified braided river and was habitat to threatened species, Doc and the environmental society said, while Forest and Bird and Fish and Game were concerned about the damaging effects of the boats.
A large group of "commercial" users of the river, who were already disturbing the remote values of the area, were hiding behind purported recreational values and wanted to exclude jet-boats, Mr Mackenzie said.
"You've got helicopters, four-wheel-drive vehicles, motorbikes, and planes delivering commercial fishing guides and others into the Hunter [River]. Yet, these same interest groups and people argue that jet-boats will disturb the tranquil wilderness."
Public submissions about the proposal to amend the bylaw close today and must be made to the Queenstown Lakes District Council by 5pm.
A council working party comprising councillors Lyal Cocks, Leigh Overton and Mel Gazzard will consider a recommendation on whether the bylaw is amended.
