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Breakdown of figures showing $30 million public money sunk into Ruataniwha dam, to date
Figures compiled by WiseWater Use showing taxpayer, ratepayer and community funds which have been used to advance the Ruataniwha dam, without a sod of earth being turned.
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Note: Wise Water Use strives to provide accurate figures and data. If you believe any of our information needs correcting, or that we have missed something, please let us know at contact@wisewateruse.org.nz
Download the PDF below
2. Equation used to show HB Regional Council rate increases of over 10% if ratepayers are lumped with the cost of so-called 'environmental flows'
Figures compiled by Wise Water Use showing the likely rate increases required to pay for 20Mm3 water which the promotors of Ruataniwha v.2 allege will 'improve' the health of the Tukutuki River, and which they propose the public should pay for. Buying our own water back!
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Note: Wise Water Use strives to provide accurate figures and data. If you believe any of our information needs correcting, or that we have missed something, please let us know at contact@wisewateruse.org.nz
Download the PDF below
3. Terrestrial Ecology Assessment: Assessment of Ecological Effects. Volume-I (Part-A):
Kessels and Associates (49 ps) - May 2013
A thorough assessment of the ecological impacts of the Ruataniwha dam on flora and forna in the Makaroro dam catchment. Includes excellent colour maps showing the area the dam would flood (c. 380 ha.) along with colour pictures. Read and weep.
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Download the PDF below, or click the link to read.
4. Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme – DoC managed Land – Description of Ecological Effects:
Kessels Ecology (15 ps) - 19 June 2013
A brief paper which identifies significant flora and fauna that would be destroyed by the dam. Includes really helpful colour maps showing the DoC conservational land in the dam footprint. Provides supporting details for the full Terrestrial Ecology Assessment report above.
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Download the PDF below, or click the link to read.
5. Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme Review: HB Regional Council Report (86 ps) - May 2017.
Assesses work undertaken on the Ruatanihwha dam up until a newly elected Regional Council voted to stop work on the project in August 2017. An excellent warts-and-all analysis of the merits or otherwise of this zombie project.
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Download the PDF below, or click the link to read.
6. Tukituki Water Security Ltd. application to MBIE for Funding from Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) to advance Ruataniwha v.2
Mike Petersen (Director, Tukituki Water Security Ltd.) (90 ps) – Submitted 31 August 2024
This is the application, obtained under the Official Information Act, submitted by Mike Petersen, director and sole shareholder of Tukituki Water Security Ltd., to MBIE for public funding to generate yet another rescoping report making the case for Ruataniwha v.2. In December 2024 Shane Jones (Minister, Economic Development) announced $3 m funding.
Amazing that this coalition government, which preaches fiscal restraint, would release this much money based on such cursory information:
Q: What are the workforce requirements?
A: To be confirmed (p. 10)
The listed ‘Risks’ (p.10) are interesting:
Risk factor: ‘Lack of region-wide support for the project’
Rating: 'Low' (Mr Petersen got that answer completley wrong!)
The actual application is only 16 pages – the rest of the document comprises the Tukituki Water Security Ltd. Re-scoping Report (Lewis Tucker (74 ps) November 2021). This report, commissioned by Tukituki Water Security Ltd. (TWSL), unsurprisingly concludes that the region faces a water crises the only remedy to which is a 100 Mm3 dam!
Download the PDF below
7. Hawkes Bay Regional Water Assessment
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HB Regional Council (86 ps) – 28 June 2023
This Regional Council commissioned report projects regional demand for freshwater, and the available supply from rivers, streams, and aquifers. It contains a number of interesting statistics in easily accessible graph format. For example, CHB has the highest water use per capita and the lowest GDP earned from that water (p.42); however, there is no information as to why this is? We speculate this is because intensive dairying which accounts for a high proportion of water consented in CHB is a very inefficient user.
The water supply and demand figures are presented in aggregate (i.e. there is no breakdown showing the type of farming or industry using water, nor is there any indication as to where within the Hawkes Bay region projected shortfalls might occur).
There are 3 water supply-demand scenarios modelled (pp.54-56). The figure reported widely by Council and the promoters of industrial scale dams is a projected shortage of around 25 Mm3 by 2040. We have yet to see Scenario 3, which posits a potential water surplus of 16.2 Mm3 by 2040 with Wise Water Use, be publicly acknowledged. An inconvenient truth?
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​Download the PDF below, or click the link to read.
8. Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme: Dam Break Analysis
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Craig Goodier (HBRC Asset Management Group, Engineering Section) (48 p) – May 2013
This highly technical report does, however, redeem itself with lots of colour plates mapping various flood scenarios.
It concludes that “the dam design incorporates features which are designed to prevent a catastrophic failure from occurring”, however, the report undertakes this modelling to allow for “the highly unlikely event of imminent failure of the dam.” The report’s authors are clearly prophets.
If you are unfortunate enough to be living in Waipawa in the event of a dam break expect low lying areas to be inundated with 5 metres of water (p.24, fig. 20). On the bright side, residents would have 3 hours warning. Also, most road and rail bridges along the course of the 3 affected rivers (Makarorro, Waipawa and Tukituki) would likely be taken out (p.26. fig. 33). Best hope our local Councils have plenty of ratepayer money in reserve to pay for this possibility!
Interestingly, most of the flood path projections predict what actually occurred during Cyclone Gabrielle on 14 February 2024 - view map of flooding here.
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​Download the PDF below, or click the link to read.