Contact Energy says it can no longer permit construction of a whitewater kayak play park in the Hawea River this year because of water levels and electricity demand in the region, but will still fund the work when conditions improve.
Construction of the $500,000 park, next to the Camp Hill Bridge at Hawea Flat, was scheduled to start within the next few weeks, after Central Otago Whitewater Club stalwarts Roy Bailey, of Wanaka, and Gordon Rayner, of Alexandra, spent a decade planning its construction and obtaining consents.
It was to be funded by Contact as a mitigation measure agreed upon by Contact and the club as part of Contact's suite of resource consents for the Clutha catchment, applied for in 2001.
However, Contact said because the current South Island storage and inflows were at 75% of the mean for this time of year, it could not reduce the Hawea River flows for the time required to build the course.
"Contact needs to retain the flexibility from Hawea should the current dry conditions prevail into winter. Therefore we are not able to guarantee the low flows needed by the contractor to carry out the in-river work," Contact hydro generation manager Graham Quinn said.
Contact "remained committed" to funding the course when conditions allowed.
The Hawea River was reduced to below its usual minimum permitted flow earlier this month as a test run for the park's construction period. The flow was dropped from about 13cumecs to about 4cumecs. Normally, Otago Regional Council consents require the Hawea River flows to be between 10 and 200cumecs.
Mr Bailey and Mr Rayner could not be contacted yesterday.
