Fish screens again delayed

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 25

Fish screens again delayed

Confusion over the status of the Te Pirita irrigation scheme by the Ellesmere County Council and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has led to a further delay in the installation of fish screens for the scheme. The Te Pirita scheme’s water-right application was made by individual farmers and not as a Government subsidised communal irrigation scheme, as the council had believed. The council was asked to contribute to the construction of joint headworks and fish screens. Confirmation that the Te Pirita irrigation proposal would proceed as a Government subsidised scheme w r as not possible as the feasibility study was still six months from comple-

tion, said the council’s county engineer (Mr R. J. Anderson). “The council was now left in a cleft-stick as to whether it should proceed alone with the installation of fish screens or await results of the feasibility study,’’ he said. This could recommend constructing an intake in a different site and abandonment of the previous investment. Installation of the fish screens was to have been completed by November 30, but because of the confusion they would be delayed at least a year. The council bad not powers to waive compliance with the requirement for a fish screen to be installed and work would have to begin immediately, said Dr Holmes.