A Environment Court hearing against a water conservation order for the Ngaruroro and Clive Rivers, resumed in Havelock North this week after being paused because of Covid-19 alert level changes in March.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council is appealing Special Tribunal recommendations from August 2019 that a Water Conservation Order be granted for the Upper Ngaruroro, from the source in the Kaimanawa Ranges to the Whanawhana cableway.
The order recognises and sustains outstanding amenity or intrinsic values of waters.
The regional council supported the tribunal declining a conservation order for the lower part of the Ngaruroro River but its appeal relates to technical errors and unintended consequences of specific terms within the recommendation, such as the definition of damming.
Forest and Bird and Whitewater Rafting NZ are appealing both recommendations.
