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A resource consent from New Zealand Energy Limited to take more water from streams around the Waimarino for an existing power scheme has been opposed by the Ruapehu District Council.
The power company wants more water for the Raetihi Hydro-Electric Power Scheme (HES).
Council chief executive Peter Till said water was a huge issue with growers in the region, particularly in light of the drought last summer.
Mr Till said the council opposes the application as the volume of water NZ Energy Limited wants to take would have a significant environmental impact on downstream waterways.
"The council also has unanswered questions as to why NZ Energy wants the ability to take this extra water when they are not fully utilising their current water allocation allowed under their existing consent."
The hydro scheme is off Middle Road, near the Tohunga Junction.
Water is taken from the Makotuku River, Makara Stream, Makaraiti Stream and an unnamed tributary of the Mangaone Stream. A water race takes the water collected from these to a small storage pond, where the water is then passed through a penstock to a power station by the Orautoha Stream.
The Orautoha Stream receives the diverged water from the Raetihi HES and is a tributary of the Manganui o te Ao River.
The Manganui o te Ao River has a water conservation order from 1989 which allows for the HES discharge but is prescriptive around the nature and characteristics of this activity.
However Ohakune grower and dairy farmer Ron Frew, who heads one of the biggest farming and growing operations in the Waimarino, said the problem was not the power company wanting more water, it was the catchment they want to draw it from.
"They couldn't have chosen a worse catchment if they tried."
Mr Frew said there are several other catchments which run into the Whangaehu River to the east of the region that have a lot more water which would more than adequately supply the small power scheme.
"The area they want to take water from is ridiculous in comparison with others in the area. They're just a small power scheme but they're going to have to look at another catchment instead of wanting the one that has the least water. It's so damn stupid."
Ohakune Growers Association chairman Bruce Rollinson said no pack or vegetable wash houses in the region would be affected if more water was taken from the streams.
Mr Rollinson, now a councillor on the Horizons Regional Council, is resigning from his position as chairman of the growers' group next month.
"They are all fully allocated from the streams so it won't affect them."
Mr Till said the set of applications do not answer the basic resource consent concerns held by the council.
The RDC considers that the assessment of effects on the environment is inadequate in accordance with the Resource Consent Act, he said.
RDC opposes the application as the volume of water NZ Power wants to take would have a significant environmental impact on downstream waterways, he said.
Horizons Regional Consents spokesperson Phil Hindrup, said the NZ Energy Limited application for more water would be heard by an independent commissioner in Ohakune from Tuesday November 12, to Thursday November 14.
New Zealand Energy Limited did not return the Chronicle's call.
The current water permits allow the scheme to take 600 litres/second a day, or 0.6 cumecs from waterways.