Progress on irrigation starts to flow

Meanwhile, another sizeable scheme in the area, Rangitata South, is on the home stretch of delivering water to 14,000ha of thirsty ground some 15 years after it was first mooted.

Water take consent applications for the 40,000ha Hunter Downs Irrigation scheme were lodged with Environment Canterbury in October 2006, granted in April 2010, and appealed to the Environment Court in May 2010. In September 2011 agreement with all appellants was reached and consents signed in November 2011.

Then it all went quiet, until last month the scheme landed a $640,000 MPI Irrigation Acceleration Fund grant, held an open day and late last week held three farmer meetings.

The scheme is a joint venture between farmer-owned company Hunter Downs Irrigation (HDI) and Meridian Energy. Local deer and dairy farmer Andrew Fraser, who chairs HDI, says the time from the appeals to these latest developments was spent organising the right company structures and governance.

“Now we’re looking at a capital-raising to do the final feasibility studies, alignment and costings,” he told Rural News.

Potentially the scheme could have a command area of 60,000ha, with 40,000ha watered, running north from Waimate to the Pareora River and from the foothills of the Hunter Hills down to the east coast.

“We would still like to reach 40,000ha but we are aiming for 20,000ha initially. 

“We need 20,000ha for us to get across the line,” says Fraser.

Most of the uptake will be for new irrigation though some farms in the command area have irrigation from bores they may augment from the scheme. 

Feedback from last week’s farmer meetings will be used to narrow down the proposals and start running more detailed costings and engineering feasibility studies. “It will probably be a good 12 months before we’re able to take the next step.”

By that time farmers further north in the region, between the Orari and Rangitata Rivers, hope they’ll be getting regular water through the Rangitata South scheme.

“We’d like to have the [pond] linings complete and the commissioning fully finished by the beginning of December and everything finished by Christmas,” said Colin Dixon, general manager of Rooney Earthmoving which has built the scheme.

However, he stressed that timeline is dependent on extended periods of high flow down the Rangitata: the scheme can only take water above 110 cumecs. Last week the flow was about 90 cumecs.

Dixon acknowledges some scheme members are impatient for water, having invested “horrendous” amounts in ponds and pivots onfarm, but says whether the scheme is behind schedule is debatable.

“There are different schools of thought on that. Some people said it would be two years, some people three. Three years would take us to February 2014… [River flows permitting] it will be completed by then.”

The chairman of the farmer company committed to buying the scheme and taking the water when completed, Ian Morten, is looking forward to that day. “Naturally, if it gets hot and dry in ten days the [scheme members] will get impatient.”