A decision on whether Meridian Energy Ltd will get water for a new $900 million power scheme on the Waitaki River is at least another two months away.
More than a year ago, an Environment Canterbury panel of three commissioners, chaired by retired Environment Court judge Peter Skelton, sat in Timaru over a period totalling four weeks to hear evidence and submissions on Meridian's proposed north bank tunnel (NBTC) power scheme.
That hearing finished on October 5.
Meridian had applied to take up to 260 cumecs from the lower Waitaki River for the scheme - a 34km-long tunnel with one powerhouse generating between 1100 and 1400GWh a year, between the Waitaki dam and Stonewall, near Ikawai.
The panel also heard resource consent applications to take water from the lower Waitaki River for the joint Meridian Energy Ltd-South Canterbury Irrigation Trust Hunter Downs irrigation scheme, which would irrigate up to 40,000ha in the Waimate district, at a cost of between $150 million and $200 million.
That hearing, also in Timaru, lasted another four weeks, concluding on December 21.
At the end of the Hunter Downs hearing, Prof Skelton indicated the panel aimed to have a decision on the NBTC power scheme out by the end of May this year.
However, the panel had to reconvene the NBTC hearing in Christchurch for three days in August.
It indicated it had made "substantial progress" towards finalising its decision but, because the hearing was being reconvened, it was unlikely it would be available until the end of August.
Last week, at a hearing in Oamaru considering other applications for water from the lower Waitaki River, Prof Skelton indicated he expected the NBTC decision to be out by the end of November, more than a year after hearings concluded in Timaru.
The panel would complete that decision "as a matter of priority".
In terms of a decision on the Hunter Downs irrigation scheme, Prof Skelton said that would be considered along with the other applications to take water from the lower Waitaki River, bearing in mind the panel's duty to consider each application on its own merits.
He could not indicate when a decision on Hunter Downs and the other 56 applications it has just considered in Oamaru would be available.
However, he indicated decisions were unlikely to be completed before the end of this year.
Early next year, the panel will have to start hearings on applications for water above the Waitaki dam.
Dates and a venue for that hearing have not yet been decided.
