The Supreme Court is set to make its final decision this morning on whether the Minister of Conservation can dispose of part of Ruahine Forest Park to make way for the proposed Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
The dam's future has been hanging in the balance while the case was before the court, and the outcome could determine the future of the scheme.
At issue is whether the Department of Conservation (DoC) will be allowed to swap 22ha of the Ruahine Forest Park for 170ha of land the Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company Ltd (HBRIC) would potentially buy from Smedley Station.
This would downgrade the protected conservation status of the land to allow it to be flooded as part of the water storage scheme.
Last month the Hawke's Bay Regional Council put in stronger conditions to reduce the environmental and financial risks of the proposal to build the dam on the upper Makaroro River in CHB to create a 7km-long reservoir that can hold more than 100 million cubic metres of water - enough to irrigate 25,000ha of land on the drought-prone Ruataniwha Plains.
