Hurunui Water Project says Greenpeace claims are exaggerated and out of date
North Canterbury irrigation Company Hurunui Water Project today rejected claims by Greenpeace that the proposed scheme
will lead to large-scale intensive dairying and consequent degradation of the Hurunui River.
“Greenpeace needs to actually read the latest information on the Hurunui Water Project (HWP) proposal that they have,”
says HWP Chief Executive Alex Adams. “If they had done so, they would have seen the scheme is very different now to the
original proposal they seem to be referring to, and that dairy development as a result of the scheme is planned to be to
be a minor component.”
Adams said a 2016 survey of HWP shareholders showed the vast majority of the dryland farmers simply wanted irrigation to
provide the assurance they needed to continue with their existing farming practice; only some 10 percent indicated that
dairy conversions might be an option.
“Ironically,” Adams said, “Greenpeace’s failure to do any real homework on the current status of the scheme means they
have put themselves in the position of opposing a scheme that actually contributes toward the longer term responsible
and environmentally sustainable farming practices they’re calling for.
“The current unreliability of water supply in the Hurunui district tends to promote a boom/bust cycle where too much
water is drawn from the likes of local bores and streams when it is available to compensate for anticipated drier
periods later on; a practice that we agree wastes water and can contribute to agricultural run-off.
“But because ours is a storage-based scheme, we can take water when the rivers are in good flows and use that for
irrigation in the dry periods, reducing the direct demand on the rivers during low-flow periods. That is an
environmental gain. HWP has never contemplated a run-of-river approach taking the Hurunui down to low flows. Our
consents require periodic high flows for both environmental and recreational purposes.”
Adams said HWP has been granted consents with some of the most up-to-date and stringent environmental protections of any
proposed scheme in the country. The consents were developed following extensive public consultation in the Zone
Committee process; there were no appeals against those conditions by any environmental advocacy group.
“Indeed,” he said, “under our current conditions, HWP simply cannot irrigate intensive dairying across the region and
still comply with the nutrient loading limitations that the scheme must operate under.”
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