The management of Otago rivers has become very complicated.
About 340 users take water through mining privileges, or deemed permits, that date back to 1862. Those rights lapse on October 1 next year.
At the council’s request and to speed up implementation Environment Minister David Parker called in the council’s Water Permits Plan Change and Water Quality Plan Change to be considered by the Environment Court.
Doing that allows staff to focus on the new Land and Water Regional Plan, which will become operative on December 31 2023.
Until those plans are activated an interim plan governs planning and consent conditions and imposes a six-year limit on a large number of water rights to enable their conditions to align with the new plans once they are released.
That is all against a backdrop where Parker last year ordered an investigation into council delays in implementing freshwater management plans.
Otago Water Resource Users Group chairman Ken Gillespie says the looming deadline for deemed permits means users need to start preparing for their renewals now.
“It effectively means applications must be submitted by spring to allow council staff to respond and to ensure the applications are in an acceptable form.
“We haven’t got very long.”
Gillespie says the $64,000 water users spent on the submission would have been better spent on infrastructure and irrigation schemes.
Gillespie says six years is too short and has created uncertainty for landowners seeking funding to for new or upgraded irrigation and for those wanting to buy or sell land.
Central Otago farmer Cr Gary Kelliher says that has created tension between water users and environmentalists.
He believes planning deadlines should have been extended and a solution hammered out based on science and fact.
Kelliher says the situation is the result of science being overlooked in decision-making in favour of a view the amount of water being allocated must diminish over time.
Elements of Plan Change Seven (PC 7) water permits will be appealed against, evident by several submissions from landowners opposing it in its entirety.
The group’s submission said it is not needed becaue the regional water plan will achieve the same result.
It also says it fails to provide a coherent framework for managing water.
“Plan Change Seven is based on an erroneous assessment of freshwater management in Otago and the outcomes achieved or able to be achieved under the regional plan, water.”
The submission says the evaluation of the plan is either incomplete or incorrect.
“This has resulted in an evaluation which underplays the failures of PC 7 and overplays its effectiveness.”
The Manuherikia Catchment Group also opposes PC7 in its entirety, saying it penalises users because of the council’s lack of investment in science, planning and hydrological modelling in preparing minimum flows and allocation for the Central Otago river.
That means the council is not in a position to allow a smooth transition from mining privileges to allocation-based consents.
“PC 7 undermines the collective, collaborative approach undertaken by water users so far and will essentially pit water users against each other through the absence of levers such as minimum flows, residual flows and recognition of priorities, which all act to ensure water users work together.”
The group is disappointed the plan was called in, saying doing so ignores the enormity of its impact and costs the community will incur preparing submissions
“Overall, the community will be burdened with a cost of over $1 million because of ORC failures.”
