A group of seven intensive dairy farms in Central Hawke’s Bay will appeal the decision to decline consent for the extraction of 15 million cubic meters of water from the Ruataniwha aquifer.

I&P Farming Limited, Te Awahohonu Forest Trust, Springhill Dairies Partnership, Plantation Road Dairies, Papaw Partnership, TukiTuki Awa Limited and Buchana Trust no.2 are seeking to overturn the decision made by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in March.

Independent hearings commissioners declined the resource consents sought by the group of irrigators. 

This option was created by the Commissioners who originally considered the Tukituki plan change and the fate of the Ruataniwha Dam back in 2015. At the time, and since, HBRC has argued against the viability of removing another 15 million cubes from an already over-allocated aquifer.

The fresh set of Commissioners summarised their decision succinctly:

“We have decided to decline the application. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that provisions in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 include words that direct us to prioritise the “health and wellbeing” of freshwater versus it being used or developed. Additionally, the Policy Statement requires that we “protect” the habitats of indigenous freshwater species. 

“The second reason is that we are not persuaded that the potential adverse effects of the application can be avoided or mitigated. These include effects on cultural values, effects on flows in rivers and streams and the biota that dwell there, and effects on other users of shallow groundwater, including for, stock water and for domestic supply.”

The appellants assert the commissioners wrongly concluded that the potential adverse effects of the proposals could not be appropriately avoided or mitigated, and the cultural values would be degraded by the proposals, and that the proposals would have adverse effects on invertebrate and fish in rivers and streams, among other issues.

Spokesman for CHB community group Wise Water Use, Trevor Le Lievre said the commissioners got it right the first time.

“In appealing the decision these farmers have forfeited their social license to operate. The Hawke’s Bay community now need to stand up and tell these Water Barons in no uncertain terms that their attitude of ‘we have entitlement to this water, to hell with everyone else’ is not acceptable. 

“Central Hawke’s Bay has the lowest economic return on water in all of Hawke’s Bay. We urgently need to be looking at how our existing water is being used and promoting its most efficient and sustainable use, not simply drawing more water from the aquifer as if it’s an infinite resource.”

Wise Water Use are seeking a review and redistribution of existing water consents as 60% of allocations are held by 10 mostly intensive dairy farms, Le Lievre said.

The organisation hopes those who submitted against the consents will register as parties to the appeal.

BayBuzz asked regional council which legal team it had retained and what the expected costs of fighting the appeal would be. Consents Team Lead Paul Barrett said the council was being represented by Matt Conway of Simpson Grierson but that costs were hard to estimate, as they would depend on the process, hearing length, scope and breadth of evidence and the number of experts they would need to call.

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