Dam nod ‘a sad day’ for Tasman
It was a sad day when the Tasman District Council gave the green light to the Waimea dam project, says Waimea Irrigators and Water Users Society consultant Brian Halstead.
Councillors last Friday voted 9-5 to proceed with the controversial $105.9 million proposal to construct a 53m concrete-faced rockfill dam in the Lee Valley.
The society is a group of irrigators who did not support the dam project as proposed. It urged investigation of riverside ponds as an alternative water augmentation scheme.
‘‘To store precious water in a $106m dam, let it go out to sea and not capture a drop is environmental carnage,’’ Halstead said.
‘‘This is a sad day for Tasman, where intimidated councillors have not listened and . . . have failed to grapple with viable and cheaper alternatives.’’
The decision would ‘‘not be remembered – only the dark process, which the council employed’’, he said.
‘‘To refuse a public referendum for spending millions of ratepayers’ money with more to spend from cost overruns is not playing with a straight bat.
‘‘The decision will financially cripple Tasman for generations yet enrich the irrigators.’’
However, Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis said the council’s decision to proceed with the project ‘‘to supply residents, businesses and growers with water is the kind of investment that will increasingly be needed in the future’’.
‘‘The project is critical to avoid severe water restrictions for urban and rural water users, and also provide for environmental river flows,’’ he said.
A recent discussion document on drought and climate change as part of the Deep South National Science Challenge highlighted that future national planning was urgently needed to improve water storage and to look at options to mitigate the effects of the more severe droughts forecast.
‘‘More frequent droughts and more variable rainfall will affect both urban and rural communities, and will mean that we will need to rethink how we manage water in the future,’’ Curtis said.
Former Richmond resident Murray Dawson has been following the dam project for several years, often speaking on the matter during the public forum section of council meetings.
Dawson said he had never wavered from his view that there was enough capacity for 100 years to meet likely urban water needs.
‘‘I’ve researched it for five years,’’ he said. ‘‘Irrigators should pay for their own water. If they need a dam, they should build it.’’
Dawson, a founding member of Water Information Network Inc, which was established in 2017 to ‘‘provide accurate information regarding the Waimea catchment water’’, said he was disappointed with the outcome of the council vote.
‘‘Irrigators should pay for their own water.’’ Murray Dawson, Water Information Network Inc