About 60 pits will start to appear this week across the Waimate landscape as part of an investigation into a $200 million, 40,000ha irrigation scheme which could create up to 1200 jobs in the district.
Meridian Energy and the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust are beginning a $500,000 geotechnical investigation into the proposed Hunter Downs irrigation scheme which will help determine the design, infrastructure layout, and cost of the project.
Meridian's Hunter Downs project manager, Brian Ellwood, said yesterday the investigation would include material sampling, testing and trial construction of embankments to understand how the soils and gravels can be best used to build the scheme.
"We have selected a random series of about 60 test pits to ensure the engineers get details of the various soils and sub-soils across the region.
"We are working with a number of landowners so the engineers have access to the test pits and our geologists can look at the geological features like test quarries, track cuttings or open faces on hillsides," he said.
The work starts this week and is expected to take six to eight weeks, depending on weather.
The test pits will be about 1m wide, 5m long and 4-5m deep.
The sites were identified by geologists to give regional information on the surface geology in an area between the Waitaki River north to Otipua.
Mr Elwood said the geotechnical information and other factors, including ground topography, irrigation demand and the cost of canals versus pipes would also be considered when determining the final scheme design, layout and cost.
The geotechnical investigation has been brought forward after $276,000 was received last year from the Government's community irrigation fund. Meridian has more than matched that to pay for the investigation.
Environment Canterbury approved a resource consent to take up to 20.5cumecs of water from the lower Waitaki River for Hunter Downs in April last year.
There are four appeals to the Environment Court against the consents.
"We are working with the parties who have appealed the project," Mr Elwood said.
"In the meantime, we also made the decision to move ahead with the geotechnical investigations, which is a critical piece of information for the project's feasibility study, which we will start on if we get a favourable outcome in the Environment Court." Once the court's decision was known, the feasibility study would be completed and applications made to the Waimate District Council for land-use resource consents to build and operate the scheme.
While no definite date has been set, that could take 18 months.
Irrigation timeline
Timeline for a $200 million scheme irrigating up to 40,000ha in the Waimate and Timaru districts proposed by Meridian Energy and the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust.-
• October, 2006: A water-only resource consent application to Environment Canterbury sought 20.5cumecs of water for the scheme from the lower Waitaki River at about the Stonewall.
• October to December, 2007: Hearing of more than 400 submissions.
• April, 2010: Water-only consent granted by Environment Canterbury.
• May, 2010: Four appeals to Environment Court against granting consents.
• May 2011: Geotechnical study starts.
• Next steps: Determination of the Environment Court appeals, feasibility study, finalising design and costs, land-use resource consent applications to Waimate District Council.
