A two-stage hearing of appeals against a new $200 million irrigation scheme in the Waimate district has been set down by the Environment Court.
The first stage is scheduled to start in Oamaru on August 29 and to run for five days.
The Hunter Downs scheme would irrigate up to 40,000ha and was granted a water-only resource consent in April last year by Environment Canterbury, to take up to 20.5cumecs of water from the lower Waitaki River on the north bank, near Ikawai.
However, five appeals were lodged against the granting of the consent for the scheme, which is a joint venture by Meridian Energy Ltd and the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust.
The appelants include major irrigation companies already taking water from the river.
Those appeals are from the Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company, Upper Waitaki Community Irrigation Company, Morven Glenavy Ikawai Irrigation Company, North Otago Irrigation Company and Maerewhenua District Water Resource Company, which combined are the biggest users of water below the Waitaki dam.
Ngai Tahu has also lodged an appeal, as have three farms.
The court has decided to hear the appeals by the irrigation companies and farms from August 29 in Oamaru at the Opera House.
The Ngai Tahu appeal, which incorporates the Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki runanga, will be heard on a date which is to be set early next year.
At the start of the hearing on August 29, requests to withdraw proceedings, adjourn hearings to a later date and approve any settlements reached by the parties will be considered.
However, the court will grant an adjournment only if there are good reasons for doing so, even if all parties agree to it.
If there is no adjournment, the hearing of the appeals will proceed.
The irrigation companies and farms are worried about the effect granting water for Hunter Downs will have on other users.
They say conditions imposed on Hunter Downs affect the priority they have to take water under their consents.
A condition which stipulates water should be shared by Hunter Downs and other irrigation schemes between 152cumecs and 175.5cumecs does not maintain the existing priority they have.
They want the court to amend conditions that accord them the superior priority they have over Hunter Downs.
Ngai Tahu's appeal asks the court to overturn the consent.
Many of the smaller catchments and the Wainono Lagoon within the irrigation scheme's area would be affected, the appeal said.
These were highly valued and important to Ngai Tahu's cultural values, beliefs and practices.
"The scheme will adversely affect the lower Waitaki-South Canterbury cultural landscape," Ngai Tahu said.
The proposal would also mix waters between catchments, with a significant effect on Ngai Tahu's cultural wellbeing.
Hunter Downs would be "the second or third-largest irrigation scheme in New Zealand", and the science and investigations supporting it, particularly in relation to Ngai Tahu's values, were inadequate.
Mitigation or mediation would be insufficient to address the effect on Ngai Tahu values.
All the appeals will be considered by Judge Jon Jackson and commissioners, Dr Alex Sutherland and Helen Beaumont.
They were part of the panel which also heard appeals in 2009 against water-only consents for the Meridian Energy Ltd north bank tunnel electricity scheme on the lower Waitaki. That hearing modified conditions and granted consents.
