Opuha Dam’s leadership reins changing
South Canterbury’s multi-million dollar water storage scheme Lake Opuha is getting a new boss.
Andrew Mockford has taken the reigns as chief executive of Opuha Water Ltd while departing chief executive Tony McCormick is set to say goodbye at the end of this month after seven years at the helm.
McCormick, based in Christchurch, said he had no immediate plans outside of spending more time with family.
Mockford brings a military background to the role, having cut his teeth as an avionics and engineering specialist with the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
More recently, he has been at the helm of hydro schemes in Otago and Canterbury as a regional production leader for Trustpower.
Mockford, based in Darfield, said he would be moving to Geraldine with his wife and three children.
‘‘It’s pretty exciting to be involved in the South Canterbury community in terms of the econ- omic value for the community.’’
‘‘There is also the environmental aspect with the custodianship of the rivers and tributaries, and all the stakeholders involved.’’
McCormick said it had been a fantastic seven years, describing it as the best job he had ever had.
‘‘We enable other people to prosper. There is an estimated annual $200 million spinoff from this project.’’
McCormick, with a background in engineering, said the role had changed over the seven years.
‘‘It warrants someone fulltime and from a family perspective, it was time for me to be making family time more consistent.
‘‘The role has evolved and shifted and so has the business.
‘‘I came in when it was simpler and now the business has become more involved in terms of environmental matters.’’
The focus had changed from water quantity to water quality, and the how action impacted on water quality, he said.
Plans were still in place for Lake Opuha’s dam to undergo upgrade work valued at up to $1m. The work to construct a one metre high concrete lip extending 300m across the top of the dam would likely go out to tender this year, McCormick said. The lip would form a wave barrier in an effort to offer ‘‘maximum flood protection’’, he said.
The improvement work reflected industry guidelines, following a five-year safety review of the dam’s data which was completed in 2017.
The Opuha Dam, situated about 17 kilometres north-east of Fairlie, was an infrastructure project undertaken by the community of South Canterbury.