Vineyard owner Xan Harding says he and other growers downstream of Red Bridge, behind Te Mata Peak, have become the “pawns” in plans to dam a tributary of the Tukituki River for irrigation.
Pernod Ricard and Indevin are just two of a number of other affected vineyard owners on the narrow corridor of stony soils flanking the lower Tukituki River.
The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s proposal is to construct an 85m high dam on the Makaroro River as part of its proposed Ruataniwha water storage scheme.
Supporters say there is strong interest in buying water from the regional council’s investment company and that many farmers on the Ruatahinwha Plains at the top of the Tukituki catchment have signed non-binding expressions of interest. The proposed date for water delivery is 2017.
While it is neutral on the dam construction itself, Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers has jointly prepared a submission with Horticulture New Zealand to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on the regional council’s contentious Plan Change 6, which works in tandem with the dam proposal to introduce new rules for nutrient management and water allocation throughout the Tukituki catchment.
The Ruataniwha water storage scheme and Plan Change 6 are the regional council’s response to the National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater Management which came into effect two years ago as part of the Government’s Fresh Start for Water package of reforms.
The strengthened limits-based regime requires all regional councils to set limits on water quality and quantity across all their catchments.
“Hawke’s Bay is one of the earliest to move on this so they are really breaking new ground,” says Harding, who helped prepare the submission to the EPA and is concerned that New Zealand Winegrowers is unprepared to support regions on resource management issues.
Plan Change 6 introduces limits on groundwater and surface water extraction in the Tukituki catchment, along with new rules governing nutrient management and rules relating to the operation of large scale community water storage schemes like the Ruataniwha proposal. Both proposals are being considered together by the EPA because they are so interconnected.
Released during vintage when winegrowers were busy with harvest, the plan change includes a proposal to stage a significant increase in low flows at various points along the river.
“That will have a direct impact,” Harding says, “with previously minor irrigation restrictions extending to become potentially ruinous long-running bans.”
Under Plan Change 6, increasing the use of nitrogen by 10 percent will trigger the need for a resource consent, which could turn into a major constraint on existing viticultural practices such as winter grazing, as well as restricting change in land use.
Harding says phosphate controls are also included in the plan change but most of the phosphate in the Tukituki River is generated by stock or human sewage from Central Hawke’s Bay. The issue is relatively straightforward and the regulations impact more on agriculture than viticulture – “it’s about stock control around waterways and vineyards should have no great issue with compliance”.
The implications for nitrogen are more significant. With more Hawke’s Bay farmers moving into dairying, there are concerns around the impacts of nitrogen intensification.
The EPA’s independent board will hear submissions in November and its decision on the construction and operation of the dam, along with new river low-flow limits and the rules around nitrogen and phosphate, is expected next year.
Harding, a contract grape grower whose vineyard borders the southern stopbank of the Tukituki River at Haumoana, says he and other lower Tukituki viticulturists, orchardists and horticulturists are pawns in the trade-off for the dam.
Hard-hit by water bans introduced over the particularly dry 2012/13 summer, several leading orchardists say the regional council’s position on river-flow limits could cost their industry millions of dollars a year and hundreds of jobs.
Harding agrees the financial impacts will be hugely significant if the plan change goes ahead unmodified.
Originally the proposed plan covered only surface water takes in the lower Tukituki. In its final published form, it now encompasses a far bigger net of users by putting the onus on those growers to prove that their groundwater takes won’t influence the flow in the river.
“The proposed plan change sets limits on water extraction over all parts of Tukituki. The regional council is fixated with Central Hawke’s Bay and their dam but, by their own admission, they have forgotten about lower Tukituki growers.
“For me, there’s a huge uncertainty. I don’t irrigate with surface water, but I don’t know if my ground water use will be linked to low flow. I could face a $10-25,000 bill for a hydrology study to even begin to answer the question.
“When some growers run the numbers through the models they will find themselves out of business. Without reliable water for irrigation, crops will fail. So this is big stuff.”
Harding says the regional council has failed in its statutory responsibility to properly consider the wider effects on the region’s economy.
It estimated the effect on the lower Tukituki irrigators as $2m per annum but the study was flawed, was done before the plan change was extended to cover groundwater and the real impact would be more than ten times their figure.
“We have strong concerns about the limits. Changing the minimum flows on the Tukituki will have downstream effects for growers. Plan Change 6 is the other half of the whole horrible mess and half the reason the dam’s resource consent applications are being heard by the EPA.”
Harding says he doesn’t want to see low flow changes for the Tukituki catchment without mitigation of the impacts on existing users.
“The whole scheme would operate to take water off the lower Tukituki guys. They didn’t really think about us and unlike Central Hawke’s Bay, there isn’t even going to be any infrastructure to allow us to get stored water.”
Meanwhile, the regional council says its flow limits are based on rigorous science and are aimed at protecting environmental values. Collaborating with stakeholders through the TANK group (an acronym for the Tutaekuri, Ahuriri, Ngaruroro and Karamu catchments), the council is funding an 18-month study investigating the water take in these areas.
Harding is one of two winegrower representatives on the TANK group, which aims to establish broad consensus amongst all the different interest groups about these other catchments which together with the Tukituki cover the Heretaunga Plains – the horticultural and viticultural heart of Hawke’s Bay.
Regional council chairman Fenton Wilson has said there is still a great deal of work to be done before a final decision is made on the dam project. ν
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