Environment Minister Nick Smith has granted Hunter Downs Water requiring authority status to develop and operate the Hunter Downs irrigation scheme, effectively giving it the green light to go.
The milestone decision gave it the authority to apply to the Timaru and Waimate District Councils and Environment Canterbury for the necessary designations to implement the scheme.
Smith said a requiring authority had the ability to set aside land for infrastructure, such as road, rail, energy or water.
“I am satisfied HDWL meets the criteria to become one and this authority status is necessary to enable the scheme to be developed.”
His approval reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to support well-designed water augmentation schemes.
“We reject the simplistic view held by opposition parties that all water storage for irrigation is bad and will continue to support projects that meet high environmental standards,” Smith said.
The scheme would take water from the Waitaki River to irrigate land between Waimate and Timaru.
Hunter Downs had previously obtained a water-take consent from Environment Canterbury and received a $1.37m development grant boost from Crown Irrigation Investments earlier this year.
The scheme had the potential to irrigate 40,000 hectares for 200 farmers.
The deadline to buy water and development shares was on April 28 after the initial April 10 deadline was extended.
Despite the shortfall in share uptake, HDW said it was committed to proceed with a redesigned scheme that would meet the demand.
“We are also engaging to confirm the economic viability to reflect scale around the demand committed,” project manager Stacey Scott said.
“We will build a scheme based on the demand that has been committed.”
Stakeholders would be involved in assessing the next step as more details on the redesign and demand became available.
The planned commissioning date was spring 2019.
The Hurunui Water Project in North Canterbury had a new chief executive to take the eight-year-old company to commercialisation of the proposed $200m scheme promising economic benefit of $170m a year.
Formerly an engineer with consultancy firm MWH Global, Chris Pile took up the reins of HWP in April from Alec Adams who had led the project for the past three years.
Pile said HWP had bought out the majority of Ngai Tahu’s shareholding and was forging ahead with a down-scaled plan.
The down-size of the initially proposed 58,000ha to 21,000ha was caused by Environment Canterbury’s new nutrient leaching rules for the Hurunui and Waipara areas that would restrict the level of farming intensification.
While Ngai Tahu still had a small package of land in the command area, it had a much larger chunk that would no longer fit into the scheme, hence the sale of a significant portion of its shareholding.
A rearrangement had included Ngai Tahu retaining a small shareholding and part of its water consent for its own future development.
Crown Irrigation Investments was providing a $3.5m grant to Hurunui Water for feasibility work.
Pile said the scheme would take water from the Hurunui and Waitohi Rivers that would go into on-plain storage using a pressured piped and distribution system.
“There’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge yet before we go out to farmers.
“We are still in the design and development stage, aiming to be ready for capital-raising in the first quarter of next year,” Pile said.
Meanwhile, in a bid to better manage water and improve irrigation efficiency two Mid Canterbury irrigation schemes have voted to merge.
Mayfield-Hinds, already the largest privately owned scheme in NZ, and Valetta Irrigation, voted 87% in favour for the merged business that its shareholders said was positive news for the environment and the way in which water was managed in Mid Canterbury.
Both schemes drew water from the Rangitata River and had been delivering it via the Rangitata Diversion Race for the past 60 years.
The merged business, MHV Water, would now supply water for close to 50,000ha of farmland.
New chief executive Melanie Brooks was appointed to head the new company with former Mayfield-Hinds chairman John Nicholls the new chairman of MHV Water and former Valetta chairman Mark Dewhirst his deputy.
