Maintaining international flights at Queenstown Airport was given its strongest support yet when independent commissioners approved plans for a runway safety extension yesterday.
However, an ambitious attempt to protect central Queenstown from a worse flood than the 1999 disaster was declined and is subject to appeals at the Environment Court and with the ministers of Conservation and the Environment.
Commissioners Dr Jeff Jones, Trevor Shiels and Mike Bowden granted consent for Queenstown Airport Corporation to excavate up to 1,070,000cu m of gravel from the Shotover River delta to build a 90m-long, 45m-high engineered fill on the western bank of the river for a runway end safety area.
The Otago Regional Council (ORC) was granted a five-year consent to build a temporary Bailey bridge for trucks hauling gravel over the Kawarau River.
However, the ORC was asked to reconsider its proposed training line on the Shotover River delta, part of its package of flood mitigation measures.
While they said they were satisfied there would be "significant benefits" from the curved wall's reduction of high Lake Wakatipu levels, the commissioners said the ORC needed to address clashes with the Water Conservation (Kawarau) Order 1997, which protected parts of the Kawarau and Shotover rivers.
