In mid-2007, the Otago Regional Council, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, the Queenstown Airport Corporation and the New Zealand Transport Agency formed the Shotover Delta Steering Group to take a "holistic approach" to major projects in and around the delta.
Now the commissioners have made a decision on ORC and QAC projects, James Beech takes a closer look at what the three major delta projects involve, how much they cost and who pays.
• Flood mitigation and river management
The ORC applied to the QLDC for consent to construct a training line at the base of the Shotover River, with or without a revetment, along the true right side of the delta.
Commissioners yesterday granted the consents needed for the line from the QLDC but declined the consents needed from the ORC.
The regional council needed to address the "significant tension" between the statutory protective Water Conservation (Kawarau) Order 1997, the ORC's own regional water plan and the training line concept, the decision stated.
The line's aim was to discourage the river from flowing on the true right side of the delta and protect proposed public utilities there.
The line would be on average 3m high and 690m long.
The line and rock revetment would be 2m high and 1250m long.
The ORC was granted consent to extract about 1.2 million cu m of gravel from the delta and Kawarau River as a flood mitigation measure, lowering the riverbed by 1m to 1.5m.
The regional council would make the gravel available to other parties, including Queenstown Airport to build its proposed runway end safety area.
Approval was granted to extract gravel to maintain the contour of the delta and remove vegetation, including three islands of willows.
The ORC was granted consent to build a temporary Bailey bridge for four to six weeks to transport rip-rap.
The bridge was to to be used in building the training line.
The entire river management project would cost an estimated $1.3 million, depending on the source of rocks.
The cost was provided for in the ORC's long-term council community plan.
• Runway end safety area (resa)
QAC was granted approval yesterday to extract 1,070,000cu m of gravel from the river delta within an area 300m to 500m wide and 1590m long on the true left bank of the river.
The gravel would be used to construct the resa on 6.4ha of land, variously owned by the Crown, QAC and QLDC, by building an engineered fill, and works would happen simultaneously.
The airport was also granted consent to stockpile gravel, dispose of unsuitable delta material and build temporary site offices and haul routes.
The fill platform would cost an estimated $10 million, which QAC would raise through loans.
The resa would take more than 19 months to complete.
QAC has been granted approval and changed the aerodrome purposes designation in the district plan to provide for the resa.
Tendering for construction is likely to go out later this month.
• Project Shotover
Project Shotover is the Queenstown Lakes District Council's $36.7 million objective to meet the Wakatipu's wastewater disposal needs for the next 35 years.
The council lodged 10 resource consents with the ORC in April 2008 to build an upgraded treatment plant and a land-based disposal system on the Shotover Delta.
Funding was allocated in the 2009-19 long-term council community plan.
The three ORC-appointed commissioners granted all 10 consents on May 9 but it was appealed by the QLDC to the regional council, to correct wordings.
The ORC, in turn, referred it to the Environment Court.
One submitter also appealed discharge conditions of the consent and sought stricter odour controls.
The QLDC entered into mediation with the submitter, the ORC and a court representative, in Christchurch, and a pre-hearing was set for Friday, July 31, in Queenstown.
If an agreement is not reached, the matter goes to the Environment Court, which could delay Project Shotover beyond 2012, when the existing pond system expires.
The QLDC plans to discharge up to 45,000 cu m of treated wastewater per day by 2043 using the upgraded system.
