Funds for damsparks a warning

A Waimea irrigators’ group consultant is warning water users to watch out for the detail in any plan to pump Crown funding into the proposed Waimea dam.

‘‘It’s still debt that has to be paid back,’’ said Waimea Irrigators and Water Users Inc consultant Brian Halstead.

He was responding to comments this week from Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd chief executive Murray Gribben who said the proposed dam was ‘‘certainly in the sweet spot’’ for investment by Crown Irrigation, which acts on behalf of the Government as a bridging investor for regional water infrastructure development. Gribben said he expected a $20 million to $25m investment could be made in the project.

Along with the board of Crown Irrigation, Gribben visited the Lee Valley site of the proposed dam on Thursday and then took a tour of some horticultural properties on the Waimea Plains.

The visit has been welcomed by proponents of the dam including irrigator group Waimea Community Dam Ltd (WCDL), whose chairman, Murray King, called it ‘‘really encouraging’’.

Crown Irrigation has been touted as an investor that could underwrite the unsubscribed irrigable land, tipped to be 1800ha in a WCDL funding model released last year. WCDL says it is expected these hectares will be purchased by new or existing water permit holders over 10 to 12 years. However, Halstead said he could not see any ‘‘large expansion of water-hungry crops on the horizon’’ that could take up those hectares and questioned how Crown Irrigation could be repaid.

He warned irrigators who took up shares in the dam to watch they did not ‘‘get tied up with guaranteeing the repayment of the Crown debt if there was not significant uptake of the dry shares’’.

Tasman mayor Richard Kempthorne said Crown Irrigation had been ‘‘very supportive of this project’’ but all facets of the proposal had to stack up to meet the Government requirements.

There were several issues that needed to be settled including funding commitments from irrigators, the tender price of the proposed dam and how a planned joint venture would be put together.

However, the visit by the Crown Irrigation board and chief executive was heartening.

‘‘It’s sounding very positive,’’ the mayor said. ‘‘It’s excellent.’’

Gribben said it was difficult to put a time frame on when a decision could be made. The other parties – TDC, Nelson City Council and WCDL – were still ‘‘getting their ducks in a row’’.

TDC chief executive Lindsay McKenzie said the council’s ‘‘ducks are lined up’’ with funding already provided in its budgets. TDC has $25m earmarked in its Long Term Plan for the project.

One of the next stages in the process would be the establishment of an interim agreement between Waimea irrigators and TDC on procuring a contractor and obtaining a price for the construction of the proposed dam, McKenzie said.