A board of inquiry into the Ruataniwha dam and irrigation scheme is to move to Waipawa today, taking the hearings process into the heart of the district where the $265million project would be built.
After three weeks of hearings based in Hastings, the five-member board will spend the next two weeks listening to evidence at Waipawa's Central Municipal Theatre, about 30km southeast of the site proposed for a seven-kilometre-long reservoir that would be created as part of the project.
The board is hearing Hawke's Bay Regional Council's consent application for the scheme along with a related amendment to the council's regional resource management plan.
The council, which is promoting the project through its commercial arm, Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company, says the water storage scheme would provide a vital boost to agricultural and horticultural productivity in drought-prone Central Hawke's Bay.
The project is supported by farmers and growers in the CHB district but opposed by environmental groups and others concerned about its impact on the surrounding area, river catchments and downstream waterways.
Central Hawke's Bay District Council is among the project's supporters. CHB Mayor Peter Butler said it was positive for the district that part of the six-week hearing was being held in the district.
"Really it was a pity the whole thing wasn't held down there," he said.
"But, okay, it wasn't. So any time spent down there is good."
Submitters presenting their cases during the two weeks of hearings at Waipawa will include Horticulture NZ, the Environmental Defence Society, Te Taiwhenua o Tamatea, and the Fish and Game Council.
At the end of the two weeks of hearings in Waipawa the board will break for Christmas on December 20.
The hearing will resume on January 15 when the board will move again and sit for two days at Matahiwi Marae, near Clive, where members will hear submissions from Ngati Kahungunu iwi.
The board is scheduled to finish hearing submissions on January 20 and is due to release its draft decision on the fate of the Ruataniwha project in March.
If the project is approved, construction of the dam and water distribution system is expected to begin in late 2014.
Water from the scheme would be available to Central Hawke's Bay farmers and growers by late 2017.