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Tranche 2
Update: 28 February 2023:
Panel of commissioners’ decline Tranche 2 application from 8 CHB farms to take 15m2 water from Ruataniwha aquifer. Wise Water Use say “we now need to address the elephant in the room, the over allocation of both ground and surface water from the Ruataniwha catchment”
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Read wise Water Use’s Press Statement here.
‘Tranche 2’ (explained below), if allocated, would have allowed 53% more water to be extracted from the Ruataniwha aquifer than the current total volume of water allocated. Eight CHB farming ventures applied for Tranche 2 consents. One applicant, Plantation Road Dairies, seeking 3.7 million m3 which, if granted, would have doubled their current allocation to an insane 7.4 million m3, or more than twice the 3.2 million m3 water currently consented for the entire township of Waipukurau.
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There was widespread opposition to the release of Tranche 2 water, as indicated by several letters to the editor in local newspapers. An interesting 5 minute current affairs investigation also appeared in TV1’s ‘Q&A’ political broadcast on Sunday 13th February 2022, featuring Clint Deckard from Wise Water Use.
‘Tranche 2’ denotes 15 million m3 of water contained in a deeper part of the Ruataniwha aquifer. This water came to light in 2015 during the hearing process held before a Board of Enquiry (BOI), a government-implemented panel who listened to public submissions and decided whether the Ruataniwha dam should proceed. The BOI decided that the Tranche 1 water should be made available for farming use, to supplement the water that the Ruataniwha dam would supply, if some of that water was used to augment streams in the Ruataniwha catchment.
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The Hawke's Bay Regional Council (HBRC) opposed the allocation of Tranche 2 at the hearings, on environmental grounds (i.e. the damaging effect of extracting more water from the already over-allocated Ruataniwha aquifer). However, the BOI decided that this water should be allocated. The HBRC, as the environmental regulator for Hawke's Bay, are now legally bound to advertise and process the applications for Tranche 2. The consents were advertised on November 2021 and applications are due to be heard by a Council-appointed independent panel of commissioners.
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It is not apparent why the HBRC waited 6 years to embark on the consent process; however, this could possibly be due to pressure they came under from farmers, environmentalists, and local residents incensed at this highly questionable decision to release the Tranche 2 water, when it was first announced.
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