A resource consent hearing began in Christchurch today to decide the future of the controversial Central Plains Water (CPW) irrigation scheme for Canterbury.
Hearings on the scheme, which would divert water from the Rakaia and Waimakariri rivers through a reservoir and maze of irrigation channels to irrigate about60,000 hectares of farmland, are expected to take five months.
CPW, a private company with some 400 farmer shareholders, will present its case for the $400 million plan to the joint Environment Canterbury and Selwyn District Council consents hearing which is presided over by planning commissioners Philip Milne (chairman), Andrew Fenemor, Raymond O'Callaghan and Robert Nixon.
The scheme, first mooted in 2000, has drawn controversy, with proponents claiming it will boost the national economy by more than $2 billion annually and opponents fearing it will cause untold damage to the environment.
The Malvern Hills Preservation Society is leading the charge against the plan heading a coalition of critics who say it could spoil the recreational use of the rivers and create a farming boom that could raise nitrate and phosphate levels in the soil, damage flora and fauna, and possibly contaminate drinking water from Canterbury aquifers.
CPW is expected to outline its evidence in the opening weeks of the hearing being held at the Christchurch Town Hall.
Company lawyer Ed Wylie began the hearing today with legal submissions.
Commissioners tomorrow will visit the proposed Waianiwaniwa Valley reservoir site in the Malvern Hills.
