A $1 billion power scheme on the lower Waitaki River planned by Meridian Energy will again come under the scrutiny of the Environment Court when it sits in Oamaru next month.
The aim is to hear if agreement has been reached on some of the conditions for four water-only resource consents which the court granted in an interim decision in September last year on the north bank tunnel scheme.
The resumed hearing from July 5, in the Opera House, will also look at what issues remain and how these can be resolved.
The scheme is a 34km long tunnel, up to 12m wide, between the Waitaki dam and Stonewall, taking up to 260cumecs of water from Lake Waitaki, with one powerhouse generating between 1100 and 1400GWh a year.
The earliest construction would start was 2013, if all consents were obtained, and the scheme would be commissioned between 2016 and 2018.
After hearings in Oamaru and Christchurch in June and July last year before Judge Jon Jackson, commissioners Dr Alex Sutherland and Helen Beaumont and deputy commissioner Ken Fletcher, the court granted the consents, subject to Meridian reaching agreement with other parties on conditions specified in the decision.
These were to do with wetlands, braided river birds, some of the adaptive management plans and errors or deletions in conditions.
