The Otago Regional Council (ORC) and Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) will know in less than a week if their joint applications for Shotover River delta gravel extraction for flood mitigation measures and the critical runway end safety area have been approved.
Independent commissioners Trevor Shiels, Dr Jeff Jones and Mike Bowden are expected to release their decision this Friday, following a six-day resource consent hearing, in Queenstown, in February.
The Otago Regional Council applied to extract up to 1.2 million cu m of gravel from the Shotover delta and construct a 1km curved training line on the delta bed to redirect the river to its "true left", which would allow sediment to be flushed downstream instead of accumulating.
The works were estimated to cost $1.3 million, depending on the source of rock, and proposed to be met by targeted ratepayers within the Wakatipu and a contribution from the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC).
The Queenstown Airport Corporation applied to extract just over 1 million cu m of shingle from the Shotover Delta to form the 90m long, 45m high safety area.
The estimated $10 million engineered fill would take up to 27 months to build.
The safety area has to be completed by October 2011, to meet Civil Aviation Authority safety requirements and secure the airport's international flight status.
Dr Gavin Palmer, environmental engineering and natural hazards director at the ORC, said if consents were granted, the training line would be constructed during winter 2010.
Gravel extraction would be related to the requirements for the safety area and other delta projects.
The Kawarau conservation order places restrictions and prohibitions on activities, including damming, on both Kawarau and Shotover rivers.
Shotover project manager Martin O'Malley, at the QLDC, said the conservation order was looked at in some detail during the district council's consent application to discharge wastewater on land on the delta and there was quite a lot of discussion on it during the hearing.
"There is a potential for it to impact on the proposed works, but that is what the commissioners will be determining in their decision."
Mr O'Malley said the decision from the commissioners will decide the next course of action by the Shotover Delta steering group.
"At a technical level, representatives from Queenstown Airport Corporation, ORC and QLDC are working on the staging of gravel extraction and the other activities, to provide the best outcome for the individual projects, while achieving the common goal.
"This work will continue to proceed until at least the next steering group meeting."
The next steering group meeting, which also includes the New Zealand Transport Agency, will be held on July 20.
