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Changing water rules irk farmers BY MICHELLE NELSON
MICHELLE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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A Windermere farmer is “infuriated” Environment Canterbury has changed the rules, stymying his plans to use an irrigation well which cost $150,000 to put in. Gary Wilson and Jo Moore made a submission to the Ashburton Zone Committee, speaking to Variation II of the Land and Water Plan covering the Hinds drains area last week. Mr Wilson is an arable farmer and Taylor’s Drain supplies half of his irrigation water requirements. Mrs Moore’s dairy farming business is totally dependent on water from the drain for irrigation, stock and domestic supply. During last summer’s drought the drain ran dry after Christmas and she was forced to truck water onto the property for about four months. “Three of us decided the only way to
shore things up reliably was to put in a deep well,” Mr Wilson said. “At the time the Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP) allowed us to transfer from drain water to deep, so long as the conditions remained the same. We could not take any more water than we did before. “When NRRP was surpassed by the new plan change something was overlooked, and it’s now become a prohibited activity – we’re not allowed go from the shallow water down to deep water.” However, the farmers concerned had already sunk the 100-metre deep wells over winter, to satisfy strict testing regimes to ensure they wouldn’t adversely affect neighbour’s water supplies, which came with a $150,000 price tag. Mr Wilson said the plan to take deep water would also improve the health of the drain.
“The benefit to the environment is we surrender the drain consent and won’t be taking any water from the drain, that’s part of the reason we are doing it – it has become unreliable – but we also looked at the benefit to the drain and the Hinds River,” he said. The commissioners’ report on Variation II to the LWP will be released next week, when Mr Wilson will have confirmation of his suspicions – however he say he has inside information the decision will not be in his favour. “It would appear ECan staff in their final recommendations to the commissioners have recommended it not be allowed.”
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