Hurunui Water revamps scheme, appoints new chief

Wednesday, 24 May 2017

The Hurunui River in North Canterbury is the focus for a smaller irrigation scheme than originally envisaged.

The North Canterbury Hurunui Water Project has a new chief executive, a downscaled plan, and has bought out Ngai Tahu's shareholding.

A main reason for downsizing from 58,00 hectares to cover 21,000ha is because Environment Canterburys' new nutrient leaching rules for Hurunui and Waipara districts restrict the level of farming intensification.

Chris Pile, new chief executive of the Hurunui irrigation scheme.

New chief executive Chris Pile has taken over from Alex Adams who was appointed in March 2014 to take the eight year old company towards commercialisation of the proposed $200 million scheme promising economic benefit of $170m to the region.

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Pile has had 20 years engineering experience mostly working for MWH Global.

He said he was unable to divulge the commercial arrangements in buying out Ngai Tahu whose Balmoral land near Harwarden was no longer part of the scheme.

But the rearrangement included Ngai Tahu retaining 1 cumec of water for its Balmoral developments and possibly its own water storage lake on the north of the Hurunui River.

Crown Irrigation Investments was providing $3.5m to Hurunui Water in a dollar-for-dollar grant for feasibility work.

'There's more water to go under the bridge in terms of design work before we approach farmer shareholders early next year for the next capital raising,' Pile said.

Hurunui Water Project's original plan for three dams along the length of the upper Waitohi which flows into the Hurunui River has been modified with the company exploring two choices.

One would be a single dam at Hurricane Gully plus a conventional river intake, and artificial storage lake on the south of the Hurunui River near The Peaks Rd intersection with Costellos and Bishells Roads.

The other choice would be a storage lake at the The Peaks area only, fed from Hurunui water at the Mandamus confluence, with earthmoving company Rooney Group currently carrying out surveys to calibrate land heights.

The project's 2013 resource consents require controls on nitrogen and phosphorus leaching into waterways and Hurunui Water Project staff have surveyed shareholders to calculate nutrient discharges from proposed farming intensification.

A recent presentation to Environment Canterbury's Hurunui zone committee showed the amount of nitrogen in the Hurunui River when measured inland at Mandamus was 55 tonnes a year, rising to 713 tonnes close to the coast, which compares with Ecan's new permissible limits of 963 tonnes.

Didymo is prevalent in the upper reaches of the Hurunui River, with cyanobacteria related to nitrate concentration, prevalent in the lower reaches, plus increasing nitrogen levels in the adjacent Amuri Basin covered by an existing irrigation scheme.

Flushes and floods help control the algae, according to the Ecan report.

But proposed piping of the Amuri irrigation scheme will reduce flows in many streams, the report said.

Six sites Ecan monitors are graded suitable for wading with one inland at Mandamus considered safe for swimming. Public health warnings are often issued, the report said.

It can take years for nitrogen from the land to re-emerge in surface water and more information is required to apply it to the timing of dairy conversions and intensification, according to the report.