Tenders close for Ben Nevis and Craigroy Stations on April 15 and their sale will be the final chapter in Pioneer's unsuccessful bid to keep the option open for a hydro dam on the river.
''They are of no use to us now - we're not farmers,'' Pioneer's chief executive, Fraser Jonker, said. Seven years of wrangling and legal action over whether damming should be prohibited ended 16 months ago.
The then Minister for the Environment, Amy Adams, changed the water conservation order on the Nevis to increase its protection by banning damming or diversion. When she announced her decision, Ms Adams said it was important to protect the Nevis galaxiid fish and to protect the wild and scenic characteristics of the river, especially for fishing and kayaking.
Before the water conservation order was amended, it left the option open for potential hydro development. Throughout the legal proceedings, Pioneer said it was not applying for resource consent for a dam, but wanted to protect the ability to apply for resource consents in the future.
It bought the leases of the two stations on the banks of the Nevis, Ben Nevis and Craigroy, in 1997. The properties provided access to suitable land and development sites for power scheme options on the Nevis.
The two stations have recently gone through the tenure review process. Some land was freeholded and some added to the conservation estate. On Ben Nevis, 4244ha has been freeholded and 3172ha of Craigroy has been freeholded.
The properties, 22km from Bannockburn, have been leased out by Pioneer and used for farming merino sheep and cattle. Debate over the special values of the Nevis began in June 2006, when the Otago and New Zealand Fish and Game Councils applied for an amendment to the river's water conservation order.
Two years later, a special tribunal was appointed by the Ministry for the Environment to consider more than 240 submissions on the proposed amendment. The tribunal eventually decided the conservation order should be amended to ban damming, solely to protect the habitat of a rare native fish.
That decision was appealed by Pioneer, Whitewater New Zealand, and the fish and game councils and the matter went to the Environment Court.
The court decision, in June 2013, said commissioners were divided. Two out of three recommended a ban on damming while Judge Jon Jackson recommended the potential for a small dam on the river should be left open.
The matter was then referred to Ms Adams for a final decision. Pioneer, which evolved from the Otago Central Electric Power Board after the restructuring of the power industry in the late 1990s, said the board had first mooted plans for hydro development on the Nevis in the late 1960s.
Plans by Pioneer for a hydro electric scheme on the upper Fraser river near Alexandra were unveiled last week after it sought resource consent for the project.
