Mokihinui: Not for Sale

Blogger: Forest & Bird’s South Island Regional Officer, Debs Martin.

Back in the mid 2000s, after hearing rumours of a possible hydro-scheme, I was assigned the (tough!) task of visiting the Mokihinui River. 

Our South Island Conservation Advocate, Debs Martin (top right), gets aquainted with the Mokihinui river.

A few months later, I was set adrift on a raft, and found myself thundering over and around gigantic boulders tossed into the valley from earthquakes.

As we bucked and romped over  the white water, I caught glimpses of rimu standing like sentinels above the colluvial flats, rata festooned with kiekie and long-finned eels threatening our raft.

Paddling through the steep limestone and granite gorges, the scene before us was re-drawn at every bend, as the West coast weather did its best to surprise, baffle and disarm us.

Combined, the sum total of this river, its native plants and animals, and the mystique of its mist cloaked gorge, is something that can only be beheld in person.

Fastforward five years – 18 months into resource consent proceedings  – and we’re still battling to save this wilderness.  In April, Meridian was granted consent to flood 14 kilometres and 330 hectares of bush to create a dam.

Of course, the backstory to all this is that NZ is electricity hungry – in 2009 we burnt through more than 42,000GWh of electricity, up nearly 7% on the 2002 figure.  And demand is expected to rise 2% a year.

The government has agreed to a target of 90% (at the moment we’re at 71%) renewable energy to ensure ‘security of supply’ by 2020 but the Institute of Professional Engineers has warned that this will still leave us at the mercy of the weather – especially given our reliance on hydro-electricity (57% of total generation). 

Instead of subsidising micro-generation, or bankrolling smart-meters so electricity is used sparingly during peak periods the government is intent on pursuing large-scale operations, like the Mokihinui. 

It won’t even throw anything substantial to assist with much-needed energy conservation measures, even though the Electricity Commission suggested we could save as much as it would take to power the city of Dunedin by 2013, IF we got on with it. 

And so, SOEs like Meridian are pitted against underfunded government departments, like the Department of Conservation, communities and charitable organisations in the court-room. 

At the hearing, twenty experts from bat specialists to fish scholars presented evidence to support DOC and Forest & Bird’s argument that the river and its ancient podocarp forest (not to mention its riotous rata*) was too precious to be drowned.

The decision was split, with the ecologist on the panel, opposing the consent. But for those of us sitting through the long and difficult process, an impending sense of doom  was never far away. 

Fighting well-resourced armies of lawyers and spending days on end in turgid court proceedings does take its toll, but we’re not ones to succumb to the battle weariness (e.g the West Coast knows our tenacity after we spent 40 years to save our native forests from logging).

Forest & Bird is determined to fight this thing until the river and its valley are safe.  We have appealed this decision, and along with others we will seek that the decision be overturned. 

This is no mean feat for an independently funded non-government organisation, against a well-heeled state owned enterprise that recently purchased an Australian wind farm for $239 million. 

Some of you might have heard that there is a joint application by the Department of Conservation and Meridian Energy to put the appeal ‘on hold’ while they sort out a few things. 

In short, Meridian Energy made an application to the Department of Conservation (as land managers) to flood and destroy the forests surrounding the Mokihinui River and to add a sweetener, it offered them a ‘land swap’. 

This would allow the land to become ‘owned’ by Meridian, and they could then use their resource consent to flood the valley and destroy the forests.

From official documents obtained, it has become obvious that the Department of Conservation weren’t convinced this was a good idea – and they were going to advise the Minister of Conservation to decline the application.   

Meanwhile in a tactical move, Meridian put the concession application and land swap deal on hold, and eventually withdrew BOTH.  In normal circumstances you’d think this would be cause for celebration.  In essence though, they have just ‘bought’ themselves a 6 month breather to re-think their arguments – and possibly completely re-invent their application.

Whilst all this is going on, we’re playing close attention to the proceedings and doing our best to ensure that fair process is upheld.  We are, by the Court, restricted as to what we can reveal, but we will always endeavour to ensure the public is aware of facts as they become available for release.

In the meantime – keep the pressure up on the Minister of Conservation.  In a quiet statement, not well reported in the media, DOC were told they needed to become more business oriented, and more ‘friendly’ to electricity generation on conservation land.  It all adds up to building more Mokihinui dams – and we can do without that! 

* Meridian is a major sponsor of Project Crimson – a project to save our pohutakawa and rata. Yet, the Mokihinui hydro scheme will drown all the rata within a 330 hectare zone and will far outweigh Project Crimson’s programme of new planting.