Land use change tipped if dam gets nod
Waimea Irrigators Ltd chairman Murray King is putting his money where his mouth is to support the proposed Waimea dam.
The dairy farmer and long-term proponent of the dam project said he had committed to buy more water shares, at $5500 a pop, than he needed for his 57ha block of land on the Waimea Plains.
‘‘We’re fully subscribed, a little bit over actually.’’
Like other shareholders, he also faces estimated annual charges of $600 a share if the dam gets the nod.
‘‘So, for us growing grass it’s not great,’’ he said. ‘‘It does force you into thinking about how you would better utilise your land.’’
Waimea Irrigators Ltd (WIL) and Tasman District Council are proposed joint-venture partners in the dam project, earmarked for the Lee Valley, near Nelson.
The project is tipped to be funded by a mix of ratepayer, Crown and irrigator funding. WIL plans to raise at least $16.5 million of its share of that funding via the sale of at least 3000 water shares.
King said commercial growers had all fully subscribed, or oversubscribed in same cases.
One of those growers, Bruno Simpson, speaking as director of Waimea Group Ltd, which owns Waimea Nurseries, this week told a council hearing panel what his company signed up to buy.
‘‘We were pleased to be part of Waimea Irrigator Ltd’s recent share offering with our company subscribing to in excess of 150 shares,’’ Simpson said. ‘‘This represents an investment of more than $800,000 ... as well as the assumption of significant ongoing costs.’’
King said none of the subscriptions came from outside the area. He expected to see land use change and intensify if the dam was built but that would not mean more dairying.
Land use change on the plains was nothing new, King said from a newly planted orchard along the Moutere Highway on land that used to be a dairy farm.
Wai-West Horticulture had leased the site and was planting 32ha in apples. That would provide work for two permanent fulltime employees and many others at times, such as the harvest.
The land came with a water consent.
‘‘They [Wai-West] would never had gone ahead with this sort of development if they didn’t have confidence in the ability to secure water because these sorts of things you can’t grow without water.’’
King is hopeful the project will get the go-ahead.
‘‘At the end of the day, everyone wants pretty much the same thing and that’s reliable, clean water and a healthy ecosystem – and they can all coexist,’’ he said.