An interim assessment of social impacts for the proposed $16 billion hydro scheme above Roxburgh also noted a heated and covered swimming pool built for the community, or locals receiving free power for the next 99 years, were among ways suggested to create benefits for the project locally.
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) started the NZ Battery Project in late 2020 to find solutions for dry years when hydro-electricity lakes run low and coal is burned to make up the electricity shortfall.
A pumped hydro scheme at Lake Onslow and a "portfolio option" of alternative technologies — including burning biomass, new flexible geothermal technology and hydrogen — were identified as the two preferred options.
Phase two of the project, including investigating the alternative technologies portfolio and creating a detailed business case for Lake Onslow, is now under way.
University of Waikato school of science associate professor Earl Bardsley, who first came up with the Lake Onslow concept, urged the community to meet and decide on some "bottom lines" for the project.
Prof Bardsley said he believed the key part of the just-released social impact assessment was introducing the idea of what the report’s authors called "benefit sharing".
Or, as he put it, "recognising that national advantages of major projects should also feed through to gains in the local region".
The report recognised the need for community involvement and providing information right from the start, and it recognised a failure in communication with farmers around Lake Onslow, he said.
If the Lake Onslow pumped storage scheme were to progress,
there would still be at least two more years of uncertainty before a final decision was made.
"As noted in the report, the present uncertainty is causing distress to the impacted farmers."
He believed community involvement in the project should increase.
"Without going through the long wait for any final decision, the Roxburgh-Teviot community, right now, should meet among themselves and decide on some bottom lines if the scheme goes ahead," Prof Bardsley said.
"For example, the report notes concern over the loss of the local recreational value of Lake Onslow as it converts to an industrial environment for the long duration of dam construction.
"On the other hand, the almost-inaccessible Greenland reservoir has many of the environmental attributes of Lake Onslow.
"Shifting the Onslow [fishing] huts to the Greenland reservoir, and a good road constructed there from Roxburgh might be seen as a net gain, but only if there is support for it."
From early activities to commissioning, the construction phase could last up to a decade.
Early estimates were for a construction workforce of 2500 people over the construction period and a peak of 1000 workers.
There would be demand for short-term accommodation, and some form of a construction camp would be "highly likely", the social impact assessment said.
The main opportunities were for the local economy, new housing and associated infrastructure development.
There were opportunities for recreation and tourism, and "opportunities to boost the viability of declining rural populations, and associated social services and facilities".
A community forum identified a range of potential benefits, noting the rowing facility at Twizel, possible reduced charges or free power for locals for 99 years, a heated year-round swimming pool, playground, additional facilities for schools, new sewage systems or fibre networks.
Community compensation should include "a substantial yearly income stream that the local community allocates as appropriate", the forum said.
The fund should be in addition to infrastructure which might be left after the project was completed, it said.
