Maui worries Clyde workers

Press, 17 February 1986, Page 10

Maui worries Clyde workers

PA Wellington Clyde dam workers are worried that use of Maui gas for electricity will delay the starting date of the Luggate dam, creating huge redundancies and jeopardising the future of Cromwell. The Public Service Association’s chairman in Cromwell, Mr Lester Kydd, has said that up to 550 jobs, many of them specialist jobs, would be in jeopardy if the Government did not authorise a

start on the start of the Luggate dam by mid-year.

The entire town of Cromwell, which had cost between $7O million and $lOO million to set up for dam workers’ needs, would be in jeopardy, he said.

The Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, made a strong statement early this week in favour of using Maui gas field reserves to generate electricity. This would take pressure off the timing and development of the $5OO

million Cook Strait replacement cable, needed to carry South Island electricity north. Mr Kydd said he had received a letter from an on-site project engineer on January 27, describing a meeting between Mr Tizard, the Minister of Works, Mr Colman, and their respective departments.

The letter confirmed the approval for the Luggate dam start time would definitely be affected by the Maui gas-for-electric-

ity decision expected to be made early next week. This was in direct contradiction to what Messrs Tizard and Colman had told the association at a meeting in November, Mr Kydd said. “We were told then that the only thing affected (by the Maui gas decision) would be appeals to the water rights,” he said. “The date for objections has closed, and there are none.”