Water levels ‘dangerously low’
Waimea dairy farmers subject to water restrictions could be facing a “disastrous” irrigation ban if water levels drop further, says an irrigation group.
Brian Halstead, representing the Waimea Irrigators and Water Users Society which has opposed the Waimea Dam from the outset, said the council had introduced 50% rationing on the plains and the next step was a cease take.
“That would be disastrous,” Halstead said.
The society believes the operators of the nearly completed dam have an obligation to release water, “because it rightfully belongs to the aquifers and the rivers”.
Tasman District Council group manager community infrastructure Richard Kirby, said a cease take was a possibility over the next two weeks until permanent pipework at the Waimea Dam was ready.
However, Kirby also said that over that same period, there should be a “relaxation” of restrictions as more water was released from the dam.
He understood the dam’s environmental pipe would be able to release up 1400 litres a second of water from Friday or Saturday.
The council did not know how much that would increase river flows on the Wairoa River , and would have to “wait and see”, he said.
Halstead said water rationing was governed by river flow, which was getting “dangerously low” and close to where the council had to introduce the cease take, at around 900 cumecs per second.
The river was currently running about 1000 cumecs per second, he said.
A cease take, or irrigation ban, would be bad news for dairy and stock farmers on the plains, he said.
Because of the restrictions, the amount of water going on the grass to graze was decreasing, and the grass was not growing.
“Those dairy farms they can’t keep up with the dryness. The amount of water they put on is not enough to keep things moving,” Halstead said.
“So it’s really the dairy farmers who are in trouble.”
The water users unaffiliated with the dam were “at one stage ahead of everyone else” to be rationed first, yet Halstead said as the dam wasn’t yet commissioned, rationing should be “all on an equal footing basis”.
Asked about the dairy farmers, Kirby said that sounded correct: “if the 50% cuts have kicked in, they’ll be struggling to keep up.”
The dam was spilling at present, he said, but the volume was dropping as the dry weather continued.
The two permanent pipes, which will release water when the dam is fully commissioned, were concreted on Monday, Kirby said.
That concrete needed 14 days to set before use, so from March 11, could potentially be opened up to release more water.
Kirby said the next 10 days to two weeks, until the permanent pipe work was releasing water, were “critical”.
The dam still had to commission the electric and control systems and that would take “another three or four weeks”.