About 30 Luggate people attended an Otago Regional Council meeting to discuss the value of Luggate Creek to the community, as a first step towards imposing minimum flow levels for the creek.
Otago Regional Council director of policy and resource planning Fraser McRae said the minimum flow study would enable the council to add the creek to other rivers that have minimum flows set out in the regional council's water plan.
A minimum flow sets a level below which people with water extraction rights cannot take water.
Mr McRae said there were not many people with water extraction rights at Luggate Creek and there was not a lot of pressure on the creek at the moment.
If someone else came along and wanted water, the minimum flow levels would allow the council to set conditions to protect the values the community had put on the creek, he said.
The people at the meeting had provided their views on the economic, social and environmental benefits of the creek to the rapidly expanding town.
The meeting had also discussed the likely impacts on those values should river flows change, Mr McRae said.
A follow-up meeting was planned for a date in about six weeks.
