Otago Regional Council to launch winter flyovers
Otago Regional Council is set to begin its annual winter farm flyovers in the next three weeks.
Several small irrigation schemes based on the river and the 1930s-vintage Falls Dam near St Bathans are amalgamating in a project that envisages raising or replacing the dam, and upgrading other infrastructure, to improve storage and security of supply.
On the back of a Crown Irrigation Investments development grant of $815,000 announced on August 2, a new umbrella company, Manuherikia WaterCo, is being formed and directors will soon be appointed.
But Kelliher said the big risk to the project is the minimum flow numbers proposed by the ORC.
He says that in a dry summer, the highest of the minimum flows proposed by the ORC would be so high that no irrigation would be possible and even then the dam and the river would both be dry by Christmas.
At the lowest of the proposed flow limits, some irrigation may be possible but it would soon have to be shut off and the dam would be empty by March.
“We totally disagree with those numbers, to the point that they would actually completely degrade the river. They would empty the river whether you had irrigation or not,” says Kelliher.
“I believe nobody wants that.”
Kelliher, who is deputy chairman of the Manuherikia Catchment Water Strategy Group, said the ORC had chosen to view the project solely as irrigators rather than the broad-based community group it is, and not utilise its information in setting the proposed flow limits.
“We will have to suffer our way through the minimum flow process and the likelihood is it will probably end up in the Environment Court, which is a real shame. I think the Manuherikia was one that actually could have stayed out of the Environment Court if all parties had been willing to fully engage and been understanding of each other’s positions. And the regional council certainly hasn’t helped that.”
Kelliher said they are now waiting for the ORC to come back with an economic impact report. The council had received many submissions saying its flow limits were too high and it would be “an awful shame” if they just ploughed ahead with their own numbers.
The Manuherikia River rises between the St Bathans and Hawkdun Ranges and flows south to join the Clutha River at Alexandra. The existing small irrigation schemes largely depend on historic mining water rights. They are due to expire in 2021, which has been a driver of the upgrade and amalgamation project.
Not just farmers
IrrigationNZ chair Nicky Hyslop has emphasised the diversity of land use under irrigation – “contrary to popular opinion” – and said a lot of work is being done by individual farmers, irrigation schemes and industry to improve irrigation’s environmental footprint.
She pointed to the impact and opportunities irrigation had provided for her and her husband’s farm, at Levels near Timaru, once they took shares in the Opuha scheme.
“We were in a position where we were just not going to be economic,” Hylsop says. “Certainly we are economic now and there’s a whole lot of spin-offs from that, that have gone further – well and truly outside our farm gate and into the community.”
