Rakaia decision elsewhere?

Press, 21 April 1982, Page 3

Rakaia decision elsewhere?

Wellington reporter The decision on the use of Rakaia River water will probably not be made in Canterbury, the New Zealand Acclimatisation Societies be- ■

lieve. The societies intend to lodge an application for a national conservation order. If it succeeds it will not be

the North Canterbury Catchment Board and Regional Water Board that decide how irrigation and- conservation interests will be settled, but the National Water and Soil Conservation Authority. The Minister of Works (Mr Quigley) has said he hopes any applications for conservation orders can be dealt with locally — that is, by the Regional Water Board — but the Acclimatisation Societies say their hand has been forced and they have no option but to go to the national authority. Whether the application goes to the local board, or the national authority, makes no difference to the eligibility of parties to be heard, or to the matters that must be canvassed.

The difference is that, subject to appeal to the Planning Tribunal, an application for a national order lifts the decision out of the hands of the Regional Water Board. The societies say their hand is forced because they regard it as a strong likelihood that two groups that have applied for irrigation water rights on the Rakaia will capitulate to a scheme by the Ministry of Works for the central and lower Rakaia.

To have' any say - at all over the Clown’s actions, the societies will have to apply for the only order that binds the Crown — the national water conservation order.

Regional water boards have jurisdiction in granting

of local water conservation notices only, and these do not bind the Crown. To succeed before the Water and Soil Conservation Authority, an application must, among other things, have a strong case for the national importance of the river.

The societies say they are confident of that. Not only do. salmon anglers fish the river from all parts of New Zealand in preference to, any other river but it is the home of the rare and endangered wrybill plover. The Rakaia is also listed as a river having national significance from source to sea in an inventory now being compiled by a steering committee representing several government departments.

Work on the inventory began before the Water and Soil Conservation amendment was really under way and some wanting irrigation are expected to argue that the inventory is not intended to be any guide on national water conservation orders; that this is solely a matter for the authority. However all applications for water conservation orders have to go to the Minister of Works, who refers them on to the authority for a decision on whether they will be heard as - national orders or local notices. The societies think it unlikely that the Minister will not refer to the inventory, or that the authority will not..

The societies say they want to lodge a responsible application for a conservation order. They will apply for a total preservation of the river, and modify their stance if, in the opinion of expert witnesses, fishing and wildlife interests are not jeopardised. They have agreed to work together in their application for a national order, with the Wildlife Division of the Internal Affairs Department and the Fisheries Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The societies’ evidence of a capitulation of the two local schemes to the Crown is in the Ministry of Works recently lodged objection to both schemes — one for the Lower Rakaia, to take 20 cumecs, proposed by the Lower Rakaia Irrigation Association, and the other by the Central Plains Irrigation Association to take 70 cumecs.

A Ministry of Works spokesman said yesterday that the Ministry planned to make an application for a water right of its own scheme at some point, and at that point there would be three conflicting schemes.

The societies expect then, that the local promoters will be prepared to let the Crown go ahead with a scheme roughly similar to a combination of their own, behind which will be the resources of the Government, and to withdraw their water right applications in favour of one

for the Ministry of Works. Mr Quigley has said that no decisions wil be made on the use of Rakaia water until all the information is together. This undoubtedly includes information being gathered now in a water resource study by the North Canterbury Catchment Board. The board was expected to report in the middle of next year, but a recent Government grant of $llO,OOO to the study is intended to hasten it. This mollifies the societies considerably, but they still want a written assurance from the Minister that the two water rights applications lodged by the two local promoters will not be heard before the conservation order application. The societies fear that because the water right applications were lodged before the water and soil conservation legislation became law on April 1 this year, they might have preferential status. They also; want an assurance that’-the Catchment Board's water allocation plan based on its resource study will have as one of its premises the possibility of a Rakaia River inaccessible for consumption at all. Any plan not taking account of that possibility would be preemptive in nature, the societies say.’ At this stage the societies plan to lodge their application for a conservation order about the same time the Ministry of Works lodges its water right application. This may mean it will simply research its case until about the middle of next year. _