Aquifer overuse risks Salt water incursion

back its workforce of about 70 staff and 20 subcontractors if the delays continued.

Lynwood Avocado Nursery in Whanga¯ rei had already lost orders for 30,000 trees because of delays in the consenting process, founder Stephen Wade said.

With each cloned tree fetching about $50 the financial implications were significant, and the company had already made five staff redundant due to the drop in orders.

The largest applicant in the Aupo¯uri Aquifer Water Users Group is Te Aupo¯uri Commercial Development, the trading arm of Te Aupo¯ uri iwi, which has applied for an annual take of 1.17 million cubic metres to convert its 260ha beef farm into horticulture.

Those opposed to increased water take from the aquifer fear it could lead to saltwater incursion, which would make bore water unusable.

Water campaigner Karyn NikoraKerr, of Ngataki, said the council shouldn’t even consider issuing new consents until the monitoring period for the last batch of consents was complete.

In 2018 the Environment Court gave approval to 17 landowners, known as the Motutangi-Waiharara Water Users Group, to take up to 2 million cubic metres a year from the aquifer.

That approval was subject to conditions, which included monitoring salinity, groundwater levels and wetlands over a nine-year period, and the initial water take was set at 0.5 million cubic metres.

Nikora-Kerr said the council should have followed the Environment Court’s lead and rejected the latest application until the monitoring period for the Motutangi-Waiharara consents, which has another seven years to run, was complete.