The Waitaki District Council owns Kakanui's water scheme - and it is armed with seven months of research to prove it.
The dispute over who owns the scheme - the council or the community - started last year after the Kakanui community failed in three-yearly elections to elect a new consumer committee.
The council took over running the scheme, appointing a liaison committee until the ownership issue was sorted out.
Former consumer committee chairman Alan Jones said at the time that was illegal because the council did not own the scheme.
The council's strategy group manager Richard Mabon said the research involved the equivalent of more than 200 hours' work.
It included information from former Kakanui scheme committee members, old Waitaki County Council records, legal research, information held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Treasury and a peer review of the process.
"The report concludes ownership rests with the council on behalf of the community . . . ," Mr Mabon said.
That report will go to the council's assets committee tomorrow.
The scheme opened in 1965 and was paid for by a loan raised by the former Waitaki County Council with approval under the Local Authorities Loans Act.
There was no provision in the Act for the county council to be able to borrow money on behalf of another body or trust which might have owned the scheme.
There was no evidence in documents or with other bodies on whose behalf the council might have been acting.
Research could not find any record the county council passed a resolution setting up a water supply district, but loan documentation and rating resolutions referred to a Kakanui water supply district.
"The likeliest conclusion is there was such a resolution and that it created a water supply district."
After getting loan approval, the money was borrowed and serviced by a rate on Kakanui water consumers.
A legal review of the research agreed the only sensible conclusion was the council borrowed money and then levied a special rate on Kakanui consumers to repay it, because the council was involved in the construction of a scheme it would own.
All the assets from the Waitaki County Council - including the water scheme - were vested in the Waitaki District Council when it was formed in 1989.
At this point, the Waitaki District Council became owner of the Kakanui scheme.
"On the basis of the evidence we have found, there is no plausible evidence for contending any other body owns the scheme," the report said.
