The company behind the Hawke's Bay Ruataniwha Dam and irrigation project says if no further appeals are lodged, it's confident it will have enough farmers signed up within a four month time frame.
The proposed Ruataniwha Dam site Photo: SUPPLIED
After more than a year of hearings, and a High Court challenge, the Board of Inquiry has released its final decision confirming strict limits on the amount of nitrogen that can leech into waterways from farming.
For the project to take the next step, 45 million cubic metres of water needed to be locked into contracts.
So far, a third has been, and another 15 million cubic metres of water was in the process of being contracted to farmers.
Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company chairman Andy Pearce said he was happy with the final set of conditions, and confident the water would be bought.
"We have about two thirds of the volume that's required and we think that's pretty good progress, considering there have been a whole lot of delays with these appeals.
"We have another 30-million cubic metres under investigation by various parties, at different stages progressing towards signing.
"We've got three investors who are interested, all of whom are interested in taking all of the private sector investment. We've made very substantial progress with one of those."
Dr Pearce said the other two potential investors were waiting until there was final consents before committing.
Environmental groups were questioning the viability of the project for farmers after the Board of Inquiry tightened the rules around nitrogen leaching.
One of the groups that appealed was Forest and Bird.
Its environmental lawyer Sally Gepp would not be drawn on whether she thought the dam was viable, but was hailing the board's decision as a win.
"So the board's final decision specifically addressed an issue that had been in contention between the dam backers and the environmental groups. There was a draft condition which required that land associated with the dam scheme be managed in a way that would be consistent with achieving a nitrogen limit by 2030.
"The dam's backers wanted that changed to a requirement to just use their best endeavours to get there, and we strongly opposed that. The board came out in favour of our position."
One farmer who's signed up for the irrigation project, Hugh Ritchie, said he was confident it could still work.
"Certainly there is stringent nitrogen and nutrient conditions, in actual fact we are working more on phosphorus in our particular case, because it's more of a limiting factor, but there is a tension there, and all agriculture in New Zealand is facing these tensions and we have to come up with systems and farming types that can actually meet the commitment to farming with good practice to meet these conditions."