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Hunter Downs Water chair Andrew Fraser.
The proposed multi-million dollar Hunter Downs Water (HDW) irrigation scheme aims to provide certainty for South Canterbury farmers and for generations to come.
The HDW scheme, which has moved from the feasibility and concept to design stage, will take water from the Waitaki River to irrigate land in an area that covers from Waimate, up the coast to south of Timaru and west toward the Hunters Hills.
Final costings and design will be unveiled later this month (September). Prior to this, HDW has been running workshops for its shareholders and potential water users to give them a better knowledge and understanding of the scheme and irrigation in general, to better help people decide whether or not to be part of the scheme.
Chairman Andrew Fraser describes the HDW project as intergenerational; it will create opportunities for future generations.
"An inability to ensure reliable and consistent rainfall on a year-to-year basis results in lost opportunities for the farming community," Fraser says.
The scheme's footprint covers about 40,000ha, potentially benefiting up to 200 landowners. This is based on the number of farmers likely to want to use the water, but that may change depending on landowner enthusiasm for investment. There are currently 93 shareholders with 18,016 shares issued to April 2016; most are landowners in the scheme area.
An irrigation scheme idea for this area is not new. One was floated in about 2000, when the surrounding councils investigated all water options for South Canterbury. Out of the initiative, the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust was formed and developed into the Hunter Downs Irrigation Scheme Trust.
The trust and Meridian Energy collaborated over ten years to develop the scheme. During this collaboration, two main boards were created for the project – the HDIL and Hunter Downs Development Company Ltd (HDDCL).
However, Meridian has now exited the project and the new farmer- and community-led company Hunter Downs Water (HDW) came into being on July 1.
HDW has already sought and been granted consents to take and use up to 17.5m3 per second from the Waitaki River to irrigate the main scheme area. The Waitaki River is fed mostly by water flowing from the main divide with about 98% reliability.
HDW is confident the scheme is now technically and economically feasible, commercially viable, and culturally and environmentally acceptable. There are still further consents and land access needed to secure and finalise the commercial and engineering design.
In February, local engineering firm Rooney Group presented a new concept scheme alignment to Hunter Downs, and in May the company decided to continue to investigate that option. Rooney Group's design includes several innovative elements – such as the gravity fed main race and use of storage ponds – which will cut the cost of building by multi-millions of dollars.
"We have worked hard on getting these [costs and design] finalised. However, we need to be absolutely confident of both the final costs and design – which both had to be peer reviewed – to ensure certainty before we can go public with the costs," Fraser says.
It is unknown precisely how much money the irrigation could bring to the community, but Fraser believes it will spread throughout the district.
A 2011, a Meridian-commissioned, preliminary economic study found if the scheme was to go ahead it could add another $100 million to the district's total household income – or another 9.8% of the district's basic annual household income.
Fraser says the water will have a knock-on effect on the wider economy, adding value to land and productivity, through to the businesses and wider community that make a living from what happened on the land.
Irrigation schemes no longer operate in isolation from community and environmental concerns and both of these have been a big part in the development of HDW. The Hunter Downs Implementation Advisory group was created to provide community input into the project and ensure a forum for local concerns to be aired and considered in the decision making process.
The group, which includes representatives from the farming community, Te Runanga o Arowhenua, Te Runanga o Waihao and Te Runanga o Moeraki, has focused on considering the application and draft conditions for the discharge of nutrients.
A major part of the project's resource consents process has been for the augmentation and recovery of the Wainono Lagoon. Environment Canterbury classes the 480ha coastal lagoon and wetland to be of national and international importance for its birdlife and native fish. It was also classified as a nutrient red zone and nutrient discharges were prohibited from increasing above designated levels.
As part of the scheme there are plans to add clear, low nutrient Waitaki River water to the lagoon, which those behind the Hunter Downs scheme
hope will improve the water quality. Without this augmentation Wainono catchment landowners are likely to face significant future nutrient constraints.
Fraser recognises the unveiling of the final costs – both capital cost and annual charges – of the scheme are critical to it being accepted by farmers and encouraging uptake.
"What we can say is the current scheme costs are tracking under the magical $10,000/ha for 21,000ha of uptake with significant reductions – in both scheme costs and annual charges – the more uptake we get beyond this. It is all about economy of scale: the more hectares we can get into the scheme the cheaper it will be."
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