19 Aug 2014

Waitaki River group objects to planned changes

4:50 pm on 19 August 2014

The Canterbury Regional Council is promoting changes to give growers and Meridian Energy, which runs the Waitaki hydro-power scheme, certainty of water supply.

Waitaki River.

Waitaki River. Photo: Paul Le Comte

But a Waitaki River users group says a deal to drop the river's minimum flow would badly harm an already sick river.

The Canterbury Regional Council is promoting changes to give growers and Meridian Energy, which runs the Waitaki hydro-power scheme, certainty of water supply.

The plan includes a cut to the minimum flow by a third during a dry spell.

Lower Waitaki River Management Society president Ian McIlraith said the river was already in its worst health in at least 30 years because of algal blooms and didymo.

He said many fish would die if it dropped to the proposed new level.

Plan Change Three includes a cut to the minimum flow from 150 cumecs to 102 for up to 10 days in a dry spell to give irrigators and the Waitaki hydro-power scheme water supply guarantees.

Canterbury regional commissioner Peter Skelton said the change was necessary but historical records showed it would rarely be needed.

Waitaki River group trying to save broken plan - farmer

A Waitaki dairy farmer said a river group holding out against a water allocation change package was trying to save something already broken.

A dairy farmer at Duntroon Matt Ross said the truth was the original water plan had never worked and that had hurt the river too.

"To have a plan that's been written in 2005 and unable to have anything done with it until 2025, I mean what's the relevance of it."

Mr Ross said at the end of the day the farmers were holding out for something that could not be delivered and they should reflect on that. He said all parties needed to compromise.