A water consent hearing regarding the taking of water in the Upper Waitaki Valley has ended after 15 weeks.
A panel of Commissioners has been hearing 110 applications since September.
Most of the applications are for water to irrigate the region.
They include those from the three companies that want to start an intensive farming system, in which cows are housed in cubicles for most of the year.
The companies have been granted consent for the buildings involved, but the cost of applying for consent to discharge the effluent the cows would produce, has stalled that section of the project.
