Ratepayers could also be struck with even more costs if the plan was appealed and ended up at the Environment Court.
But Waikato Regional Council science and strategy director Tracey May said the costs were not a surprise and the council had been transparent about the costs right from the start of the process, in accordance with central government legislative requirements. There had also been more involvement from independent technical advisers, sector representatives and the wider catchment and regional community than previous plans.
The plan was initially held up after a portion of the plan, known as Plan Change 1A, was withdrawn by the Waikato Regional Council so the Hauraki Iwi could be better consulted with and hearings will not go ahead until this has been completed.
The council had finished consulting with Hauraki Iwi and River Iwi and council staff were now working on making joint recommendations to the Healthy Rivers Wai Ora Committee, which would then be considered by the full council.
The plan would then be re-notified by early 2018 and hearings were not expected to take place until the middle of the year. This was six months later than the council's earlier expectations.
There have also been delays to appointing five commissioners to sit on the hearings panel, which the council blamed on the small number of available commissioners. Elected members are now expected to be asked to sign off the recommended panel before the end of the year.
"Given the importance of this proposed plan change, we need to ensure the panel has the right mix of skills and legislative knowledge," May said.
Waikato Federated Farmers spokesman Andrew McGiven said the council was being extremely optimistic in its expected timeframes and cost of hearings.
"When I say it is a can of worms, they have underestimated quite a bit about what the hearings are going to cost with more than 1000 submissions."
McGiven pointed to Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management Plan Change 10 where 98 submissions took eight weeks to go through and said more than 1000 would take much longer.
The number of submissions was also likely to grow once the council re-notified plan change 1A and then the two plans were re-notified together.
"We haven't got a lot of bang for buck for the money we have spent so far obviously and unfortunately it's the process we have to go through under the RMA."
He said although Plan Change 1 was operational there was a reluctance from farmers to spend too much money on getting farm environment plans in case the rules changed.
Hamilton Residents and Ratepayers Association president Mischele Rhodes said the whole plan should be scrapped as she did not believe it addressed the biggest issues with what was going into the rivers.
Rhodes also questioned why commissioners were being appointed at such a high cost when there were elected members voted in to make decisions on the community's behalf.
"It really is a waste of our ratepayer money.
"Basically we are paying for bureaucracy that is a plan which fails in my view."
