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Home / The Country

Ruataniwha Dam assets up for sale in CHB

CHB Mail
8 May, 2018 03:00 AM4 mins to read

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The site of the shelved Ruataniwha Dam in CHB.

The site of the shelved Ruataniwha Dam in CHB.

The Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company wants to sell assets and information associated with the failed Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme (RWSS).

But it says it has no expectations of what the value of that information would be, or who the buyer might be.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council, through its investment company HBRIC Ltd, last month called for expressions of interest to purchase all or part of the residual assets, consents and intellectual property associated with the project.

The council elected to not invest further in the scheme after a Supreme Court decision not to allow the exchange of Department of Conservation land, needed for the dam and associated reservoir to be built.

The council had invested $20 million in the project, but recently-appointed HBRIC chairman and regional council chairman Rex Graham said no value had been set on the assets and information now up for sale.

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"The market will want to have a good look at it and will decide what it's worth — I do not want to leave it rotting away in a bottom drawer. Too much work was done and we need to see if we can get some value."

He said the information included a large amount of science around water, such as how the water flowed in the Ruataniwha aquifer, and water storage options, and the council thought it important to release that information so people in CHB who wanted it for their own business reasons could gain access to it.

There were 17 consents on offer for a range of activities, including construction, land use, operating the dam and discharge permits.

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Mr Graham said some of these consents may not be worth anything because any effort to resurrect the dam project would face several hurdles.

"I'm more interested in making the work on the aquifer and the geo-technical information available."

He said he imagined it was most likely interest would come from CHB farmers wanting to explore water storage, but the final decision would depend on who was making the offer and what they intended to do with it.

"It's really only valuable to CHB farmers — we don't want someone else to put it in a bottom drawer either — we want it to be of use to the community.

"We owe it to the ratepayers who invested serious money in it to get the best return possible."

Although the majority of the current council had opposed the dam project, including Mr Graham and fellow councillor Peter Beaven, who have both been appointed directors of HBRIC, Mr Graham said this would not affect how the council viewed any suggestions a buyer might put forward on how they would like to use the information and assets.

That would be constrained by the limits and rules set down by Plan Change 6.

"You can't farm or run a business or a town and ruin the rivers and streams — my hope is it will end up in the hands of farmers who want to do some form of water storage. They know the environmental constraints that have been set."

While independent director Dan Druzianic was being paid, he and Mr Beaven were not, and HBRIC was in something of a holding pattern. Other commercial directors would be appointed for any future projects HBRIC may consider.

At a meeting on March 28 the council discussed the matter, and staff recommended that the council instruct HBRIC to engage a third party to facilitate the sale of any assets or intellectual property developed in connection with the RWSS, at arms-length and within a specific timeframe.

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Mr Graham said this had been achieved by advertising the sale in local and national media, and a third party was not needed.

"This is simply a commercial transaction."

Expression of interest documents were available at the council and any proposals were to be filed by May 11. The assets would be transferred back to the council if no acceptable offer was received.

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