Controversial dam gets nod
The $105.9 million Waimea dam project is go.
After a lively six-hour meeting yesterday, Tasman district councillors voted 9-5 to proceed with the controversial proposal to construct a 53m concrete-faced rockfill dam in the Lee Valley.
The council will have a jointventure partner in the project – Waimea Irrigators Ltd (WIL). A councilcontrolled organisation, Waimea Water Ltd, will deliver it. Five of Waimea Water’s seven directors have already been appointed.
Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne, deputy mayor Tim King and Crs Sue Brown, Stuart Bryant, Paul Hawkes, Kit Maling, David Ogilvie, Paul Sangster and Trevor Tuffnell voted yes, while Crs Peter Canton, Mark Greening, Dean McNamara, Anne Turley and Dana Wensley voted against.
The decision came after an extended public forum where 17 people presented their views either for or against the project. A discussion lasting almost three hours followed between the councillors.
After the meeting, a delighted Kempthorne said he felt wonderful.
‘‘I think it’s a wonderful decision for the district. I know this is very controversial . . . but I’m so pleased that we’ve made the decision we have today.’’
Kempthorne, a long-time supporter of the project, said he was pleased he did not have to use his casting vote.
He expected that work at the site could begin early next year.
‘‘I would just encourage everybody in the district now to accept the decision, embrace the decision and let’s go on together as a happy district.’’
Kempthorne said he would make a decision whether to stand again as mayor ‘‘probably towards the end of January’’.
WIL strategic adviser John Palmer, who was in the chamber for the vote, said relief was his primary feeling.
‘‘Sufficient people had been prepared to not only judge the facts and put all the emotion and rhetoric to one side but to judge the facts and to judge it on the basis of what is in the best long-term interests for the district,’’ Palmer said.
‘‘The thing that’s driven me is that I just think this is so critical for the future of the district and for my grandchildren and their grandchildren that I am absolutely certain that people will look back, probably even in 20 years, and say, ‘What
‘‘I would just encourage everybody in the district now to accept the decision . . . and let’s go on together.’’
Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne
a great decision that was’.’’
Nelson MP Nick Smith, who spoke in support of the project during the public forum, welcomed the final go-ahead from the council.
‘‘This is a hugely positive decision for the future of the Nelson and Tasman region,’’ Smith said. ‘‘It means a cleaner and healthier river, enables growth of our key horticultural industry, and secures household water for the huge growth in Richmond, Mapua, Brightwater and Nelson South.’’
Smith congratulated the elected representatives ‘‘for having the courage to make this major infrastructure decision for the region’’.
A local bill to enable access to the dam site passed its second reading in Parliament on Wednesday. ‘‘I remain hopeful of having its third reading on Wednesday, 12 December so it can be passed by Christmas, enabling dam construction to begin in the new year,’’ Smith said.
Before the vote, Greening said the proposal was ‘‘fundamentally flawed on many levels’’. Kempthorne cut short the Richmond councillor after about 20 minutes as Greening outlined a raft of concerns about the project, including the level of risk and cost facing ratepayers, which he said had gone beyond all ‘‘lines in the sand’’.
Sangster, who voted against the project in August and September, said he was prepared to support the motion, though he still had concerns about the finances. ‘‘At the end of the day, I can only say we have to be progressive.’’
Maling said the project wasn’t controversial until ‘‘we had to work out how to pay for it’’.
Kempthorne said the level of external funding for the project was ‘‘outstanding’’, and the council would not get anything to match it again.
King, who moved the motion to proceed with the project, spoke of the importance of collective decisions to tackle the issues facing the district. Everyone could find something they did not like about the project; the trick was whether there were ‘‘enough things that provide the benefits that bring people together’’, he said.
McNamara said the council’s commitment was for ‘‘more than three times’’ its current need.
‘‘This is a huge subsidy for a handful of irrigators on the Waimea Plains for the life of the dam.’’
At the public forum before the vote, retired British chartered public sector accountant Louise Coleman, of Golden Bay, was first up and said she was not there because of a dam.
‘‘I’m here today because of greed and what greed can do to democracy if it’s not constrained,’’ Coleman said.
Over the past 12 to 18 months, a raft of ‘‘well-qualified professional people’’ had presented the council with ‘‘detailed rationale’’ showing the Waimea dam option to be fundamentally flawed in terms of the need, the process, the information, the funding model, the cost and the solution, she said.
‘‘Yet you continue to vote for it. Today, you choose whether to support democracy or to support greed.’’
Fellow Golden Bay resident Victoria Davis said people opposing the dam had been waiting for many years to have their say. ‘‘Our mayor then blocked a call for a referendum with his casting vote.’’
Davis left the public gallery, accompanied by a security guard, when the first speaker for the dam, Nick Smith, was called to speak. ‘‘I’m leaving because this whole thing is a sham,’’ she said.
Former mayoral candidate Maxwell Clark confirmed he was behind a flyer that was delivered to Brightwater residents claiming a wall of water up to 8m high could hit the town if the dam failed. The document has been heavily criticised by some people, including Smith and former parliamentary commissioner for the environment Dr Morgan Williams.
Clark stood by the information in the unsigned flyer, saying it came from the council’s ‘‘official documents’’.
‘‘Public safety is paramount,’’ he said.
Resident Kevin Walmsley said he was not anti-dam but did not believe the Waimea dam project was financially viable. He asked for two measures to be put in place to limit the financial risk to ratepayers – a full credit check of all WIL shareholders, and a capped, fixed-price contract.
J S Ewers Ltd financial manager Ursula O’Donohue said the Appleby market gardener employed 170 staff, 80 per cent of whom were permanent employees. It also engaged the services of more than 260 different businesses, most of which were local.
‘‘Our community, our environment and our business needs water,’’ she said. ‘‘We simply want to ensure it goes ahead because it’s the right thing to do.’’
It’s been a turbulent journey for the project, which was stopped temporarily in August when councillors voted 8-6 against proceeding with the then $102m proposal and increasing the contribution of ratepayers.
However, councillors on September 6 revoked that decision and voted 9-5 to push on after they were presented with a reworked funding model that lowered the expected costs to ratepayers.
Since then, the proposal has been rolling on towards financial close – when all funding and project agreements have been signed and the work can start. A decision was required on Friday because Government funding and concessional loans for the project via Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd (CIIL) and the Ministry for the Environment would no longer be available after December 15, staff told councillors.