It is one of five groups that have appealed to the High Court against aspects of the council’s regional policy statement - an umbrella policy document that sets the stage for the regional council’s land and water plan and local councils’ district plans.
Kai Tahu’s notice of appeal said it supported the vast majority of the council’s decisions on the freshwater parts of its regional policy statement - but it was wrong to provide for potential new hydro-electricity generation schemes within the Clutha and Taieri catchments.
It also said the council was wrong not to refer to "Māori freshwater values and amenity values" in the document.
The council was again wrong not to include reference to "improvement of water bodies", where those water bodies were degraded, Kai Tahu said.
The council approved the recommendations of an independent hearings panel in March after weeks of hearings on both freshwater and non-freshwater parts of the regional policy statement last year.
Because of a new fast-tracking process for freshwater planning instruments, introduced by the Labour government in 2020, appeals against the freshwater provisions can only be made to the High Court and therefore must relate to errors in law.
Other freshwater appeals to the High Court were filed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council, Forest & Bird, Fish & Game and OceanaGold.
Queenstown Lakes District Council appealed against provisions around discharging stormwater and wastewater.
Forest & Bird’s appeal largely concerned the policy statement’s treatment of wetlands, saying the wetland policies did not give effect to higher order policy direction.
Fish & Game said the regional policy statement failed to mention trout and salmon habitat - nor taking food that was safe to eat from the region’s waterways (except in the case of referring to mahika kai which is defined as relating only to Kāi Tahu).
OceanaGold appealed on a range of matters, including the council’s policy statement not being consistent with higher order planning documents in parts.
In a statement to the Otago Daily Times, Oceana Gold senior vice-president Alison Paul said the final policy settings of the regional policy statement were important to the future of Macraes Mine, and the more than 600 people who worked there.
"As far as the appeals go, the decision of the [hearings] commissioners has sought to take a targeted approach to setting environmental limits, and one which looks for ways to reconcile social, economic and environmental imperatives within the local context.
"That is an approach we agree with.
"There are areas where we consider changes to the policy wording would offer greater clarity in achieving that approach however."
Council policy and science general manager Anita Dawe said a case management conference for the appeals was set down for June.
"The questions of law will need to be addressed before the [regional policy statement] is operative," Ms Dawe said.
This would either be by the High Court finding no error of law, or finding an error of law and remitting points back to the freshwater panel for consideration, she said.
The council has published the appeals on its website.
