Mayor to stay after dam loss
Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne has no plans to resign in the wake of a council decision that has effectively ended the Waimea dam project.
‘‘No, not at all,’’ said the fourth-term mayor and longtime supporter of the project. ‘‘My mayoralty is not just about the dam; it’s about serving the community.’’
Kempthorne’s comments come after councillors on Tuesday voted 8-6 to effectively drop the $102 million project, which has been in the pipeline for about 15 years.
However, he suggested that a dam in the Lee Valley, near Nelson, might not be completely dead in the water. ‘‘We’ll still do everything we can to see if we can make it work,’’ he said. ‘‘All options are on the table to see where to from here.’’
He said he felt ‘‘extreme disappointment’’ after the vote on Tuesday.
‘‘Having read the staff report . . . it was a very compelling case [for the dam]. We do need water. The alternatives are much more expensive.’’
Kempthorne declined to be drawn on whether a third version of the dam proposal could be developed, after an initial model for the project was knocked back in 2014, followed by Mark II on Tuesday.
‘‘Let’s just wait and see,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s too early yet. Is there any option we can explore further, because the case for the dam is so compelling?’’ Council staff, too, were still juggling the potential fallout from the decision. Acting chief executive Richard Kirby said the implications and consequences were widereaching, ‘‘covering everything from planning to infrastructure development and everything in between’’.
‘‘The full impact of the decision will not be fully visible until mid-next week at the earliest,’’ Kirby said.
‘‘One thing is certain, though, and that is the current year’s rates. They have been set and cannot be changed, including the Waimea Community Dam-Environmental and Community Benefits district-wide rate and Waimea Community Dam-Environmental and Community Benefits Zone Of Benefit rate.’’
The council previously said that if the project didn’t proceed, the rates collected would fund costs already incurred, ‘‘so there
won’t be refunds on these rates’’.
‘‘[TDC] has incurred costs to date on the dam project, which will need to be funded,’’ Kirby said. ‘‘We don’t know what this will look like in terms of rate type, how charged, or quantum after the 2018-19 rating year, as this will be a decision to be made by the council.’’
When pushed to provide an indication of how much ratepayers might still need to fund, council community relations manager Chris Choat said that including project close-out costs, which were still to be determined, the ‘‘ballpark’’ figure was expected to be between $7m and $8m.
Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis said he was ‘‘somewhat shocked’’ by the council decision.
‘‘After years and years of investment and millions and millions of dollars to establish the Waimea dam as the way forward, I’m really struggling as to how they came to the conclusions they did.’’
Curtis said it showed the need for ‘‘some more significant infrastructure projects to be raised up to a higher level’’, and mentioned the planned reform of the three water services – drinking water, stormwater and wastewater – including the potential aggregation of local government water functions.
Kempthorne said it was not the first time he had heard such a suggestion. ‘‘It does make me wonder. These infrastructure projects are so difficult to get across the line.’’
He said that in the past, he would have advocated for keeping decision-making in local hands, but issues such as the dam could be ‘‘very challenging and at times too challenging . . . I think we have to look at all options’’.