A new $90 million milk processing plant near Glenavy could create between 60 and 70 new jobs while increasing competition to buy milk from North Otago and South Canterbury dairy farms.
The plant is proposed by Oceania Dairy Ltd, who yesterday put its case for building it to a joint Waimate District Council-Environment Canterbury three-member panel considering whether or not to grant five resource consents for the development.
Oceania acting chief executive Paul Park said the company had been established specifically to design, build, own and operate a "flagship facility".
"The Waimate area was chosen . . . given the strong dairy sector, larger than average farms, high farm productivity, progressive farmers that understand the independent-processor business model and growth potential," Mr Park said.
The company had a contract to buy a 38ha site, conditional on obtaining all necessary resource and building consents, for the plant just east of State Highway 1 in Cooneys Rd.
Milk would be sourced within a 50km radius of the plant, initial supply coming from existing farms.
"Oceania will offer farmers another choice for processing their milk.
"Oceania views competition and choice as a positive outcome for farmers," he said.
The design was for a plant producing up to 8 tonnes an hour of whole milk powder, starting in August 2011 and needing a total of 220 million litres of milk from about 50,000 cows.
Annual turnover was estimated at $150 million, with the vast majority to be used to buy milk from South Canterbury and North Otago farmers.
During construction up to 200 workers could be on the site on given days.
Once operational, about 40 new jobs would be created, although a final number had not been decided.
In addition, outside contractors and service providers would be required, creating another 20 to 30 jobs, Mr Park said.
Key features of the plant included a 37m-high drier tower, 45m-high boiler exhaust stack and ancillary buildings up to 10m high.
Traffic engineer Gary Huish said the plant would generate about 340 traffic movements a day during its construction and 280 a day when it was operating.
The SH 1-Cooneys Rd intersection would be upgraded and Cooneys Rd improved to handle light and heavy traffic once the plant was operating, he said.
Landscape architect Tony Milne said the plant would be "quite prominent", but the site was "relatively featureless" and isolated from populated areas.
"The facility is associated with the dairy industry and therefore compatible with the dairy land-use character of the locality," he said.
Proposed mitigation conditions, including landscaping, finishing the buildings in muted natural colours and retaining existing shelter belts, were considered sufficient to counter any adverse effects, Mr Milne said.
Legal counsel Ewan Chapman said the application was not about further development of dairying in the region.
"It is accepted that various consents are associated with the activity of dairying, particularly the disposal of dairy shed effluent, but this application does not focus on the merits of further dairying expansion," he said.
Two new initiatives - the Meridian Energy Ltd north bank tunnel scheme and the Hunter Downs irrigation scheme - were not directed at dairying but would allow conversions to dairying of significant areas of farmland which did not at present have a secure water supply.
"But even without these schemes, dairying will continue," Mr Chapman said.
The hearing is expected to conclude today with submissions from those supporting and opposing the plant.
Oceania Dairy hearing
What: $90 million plant processing milk from up to 50,000 cows.
Who: Oceania Dairy Ltd.
Where: East of SH 1 in Cooneys Rd, about 3.5km north of Glenavy.
Needs: 4 resource consents from Environment Canterbury and 1 from Waimate District Council.
Consents hearing: Waimate District Council, yesterday and today.
Hearings panel: Waimate councillor Peter McIlraith, Environment Canterbury councillor Bronwen Murray, independent commissioner Bob Nixon (chairman).
Decision: Likely in February.
