Storage dam options to be cut back

Tividale, Black Creek, Te Mara, Mangaterere and White Rock remain as likely storage sites, along with three reserve options.

The five remaining preferred options for storage dams for the Wairarapa Water Scheme are likely to be pared back in the next year.

Tividale, Black Creek, Te Mara, Mangaterere and White Rock remain as likely storage sites, along with three reserve options.

The Wairarapa Water Use Project is investigating the viability of one or more multi-purpose water schemes that would collect and store water then distribute it for a variety of economic and community uses in an environmentally sustainable way.

Pre-feasibility work, beginning now, builds on previous work to determine which schemes, if any, show enough viability to warrant a more detailed full-feasibility study that would begin in mid-2015.

Preliminary investigations have narrowed the possibilities to the five preferred options along with three identified reserve options.

Project director Michael Bassett-Foss says the current phase of work was designed to pinpoint factors that would prevent the development of individual schemes.

"We want to move as quickly as possible to identify schemes that could be viable from technical, financial, cultural, environmental and social perspectives, and therefore suitable for advancing to a full-feasibility study. I expect that the project would be in a position as early as December to start discounting the least viable sites, helping to give affected landowners certainty."

The programme is divided into six work streams with a series of review points at which the mix of schemes for continued investigation will be re-examined.