Pressure on the Government-instigated Waitaki catchment water allocation plan has prompted Environment Canterbury (ECan) to organise a workshop in Waimate on Thursday to discuss possible changes.
The meeting, open to the public, will discuss issues associated with reviewing the plan, which allocates water and sets minimum flows for the Waitaki catchment, including its tributaries.
It will involve ECan councillors, groups with an interest in the catchment and individuals, but will make no decisions.
ECan's principal consents adviser, Bianca Sullivan, said yesterday the workshop followed considerable pressure from the lower Waitaki community, including irrigators, to change the annual allocation of water between the Waitaki dam and Black Point for irrigation.
Issues were raised during resource consents hearings last year for the proposed Hunter Downs irrigation scheme and the Meridian Energy Ltd north bank tunnel power scheme.
The water allocation plan was prepared in 2005 by the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board, appointed by the Government during debate over Meridian's Project Aqua power scheme on the Waitaki south bank, between Kurow and State Highway 1.
It became operative in July 2006 as a regional plan administered by ECan.
The plan cannot be reviewed until it has been in operation for two years.
ECan is processing resource consent applications held up while the plan was prepared, including some which date back to 1998.
Hearings for those are scheduled to start on August 11.
Ms Sullivan, in a report prepared for Thursday's meeting, said issues which had arisen with the plan included.
• The annual allocation between the Waitaki dam and Black Point for agricultural use.
Based on some calculations, this allocation may be close to being fully allocated, which meant some of the 36 new applications would not comply with the plan.
• Applications by Meridian for the north bank power and Hunter Downs irrigation schemes proposed minimum flows for the lower Waitaki River which were below the 150 cumecs specified in the plan.
There was also an issue with minimum flows in some tributaries.
• There were other issues such as the location of Black Point in the plan, the annual volume allocation for agriculture above the Waitaki dam and whether stock water was included in allocations.
However, while Ms Sullivan's view was the plan required changing, she did not believe that should be done until all existing resource applications had been processed.
Even if a plan change was started now, it would not make consent applications, especially for irrigation between the Waitaki dam and Black Point, comply with the plan.
It could also mean hearings conducted last year into the north bank power scheme and Hunter Downs irrigation would have to be reopened.
"Initiating a plan change prior to consent decisions would, in my view, unnecessarily complicate the process and lead to additional delays through reopening hearings," she said.
The ECan workshop will start at 10.30am on Thursday at the Waimate District Council offices.
