Waimea Water Update

The Waimea Dam project has had a gestation of about 20 years. Rural Delivery covered early proposals in 2010 and the pre-construction design and planning process in 2017. The dam was commissioned in September 2024 and officially opened in February 2025. It now provides assurance of water supply to the Tasman district.

It is a highly productive area with vineyards, market gardens, orchards, and a few larger farms, settlements and townships. Its horticultural advantages, including great soil quality, contour, access to water and high sunshine hours, have led to more intensive land use and higher-value products that have justified capital investment in infrastructure.

Water is key to productivity. The Waimea River runs into Tasman Bay, supplying many aquifers along the way. Users pump directly from the river or from aquifers, and in a good year there is enough to go around. However, in the early 2000s it was realised the available water was greatly over-allocated and that, in seven years out of ten, there was insufficient to meet user demand - let alone have sufficient flow in the river to keep it healthy.

Feasability studies and geotech investigations resulted in a decision to build a dam in the upper reaches of the Lee Valley, a high rainfall area feeding into the Waimea Plain river system. The advantages of the scheme were that no pipes would be needed to deliver water to the Plain, since the river system already did this. Users could use existing pumps and bores. The amount of water released from the dam could be managed to maintain at least minimum river flows to ensure sufficient water for river health and the needs of users. Also, in very dry summers there would be no risk that the lack of flow would allow seawater to seep inland and contaminate aquifers. Security of water would also benefit the growing urban population in Richmond and smaller communities around the region.

In 2018 Waimea Water Ltd was established to manage the construction, operation and maintenance of the Waimea Community Dam. The majority shareholder is the Tasman District Council. The other shareholder is Waimea Irrigators Ltd, which contributed to the construction costs of the Dam through water users purchasing Water Shares and from loans from Crown Irrigation Investments Limited. Water Shares entitle holders to a secure supply of water for irrigation etc., except during periods of extreme drought. Growers and others who don’t buy shares can still draw water from the aquifer or river when plentiful but not when supplies diminish.

Construction of the dam was a huge undertaking that started in 2019. Unexpected problems occurred with the foundations, the Covid19 pandemic caused major interruptions with progress and with supply of components, and costs increased consequently. Despite these serious challenges the project was completed and the dam commissioned in September 2024. By that time the dam was full and at the end of a very dry summer Waimea Water was able to release sufficient to avoid severe restrictions on supplies to growers and the local community.

The dam is 53m high and 220m long, and constructed of nearly 500,000 cubic metres of rock, 32,000 cu.m of concrete and over 3000 tonnes of reinforcing steel. The construction also used 110,000 cu.m of drainage rock and 25,000 tonnes of sand. The final cost was an eye-watering $211 million, but the economic benefit to the region over the next 25 years is estimated to be between $600 and $900 million.

Murray King has been involved with many community groups and committees over the past 20 years, all aiming to solve the community’s water supply problems. He is currently chair of Waimea Irrigators Ltd. He says proposals, planning, permissions and finance all took time. And when construction finally began, they encountered several setbacks. “Fires delayed the commencement by a week or two. Initially site access was difficult, and we had very limited money, so weren’t able to do as many test bores as we would have liked and we encountered unanticipated ground conditions,” he says.

“For example, a fault was found directly between two boreholes, and they were only about six metres apart. So that was just completely bad luck. There were delays in getting approvals, and then delays caused by Covid, which led to more cost increases – for example, there were valves that would have been sea freighted from Europe, but because of timing issues they had to be air-freighted. So, there were a lot of reasons for the cost increases - but if we started building today, I think it would cost significantly more again. Now we have a completed dam, it’s incredibly robust and safe, the reservoir is full of water, and everything is working the way it was designed.”

Murray says now that there is greater security of water supply, the land is more valuable for horticulture than dairying, and existing growers are investing in tunnel houses and the like.

Landholders can buy water shares for an upfront cost of around $7000/ha and an annual cost of around $1200. This entitles them to 30ml of water per hectare per week and security of supply except in extreme droughts. Currently there are Water Shares for 1800 hectares still available for purchase, so there is unlikely to be water shortages for anyone soon.

Bruno Simpson is the CEO of the Waimea Group that includes Waimea Nurseries, which has been a supplier of fruit trees to NZ orchardists since 1971. It is a family business and Bruno is the third generation to be involved. The nursery covers over 300 ha on the Waimea Plains, with both field and container nursery production sites.  Their main product is producing fruit trees, with apple trees being about 70% of their business, says Bruno. The company operates on about 300 ha, using 80 ha per year for production.

“We grow and sell fruit trees for domestic orchard sectors, as well as for the home garden market through retail partners. We produce hundreds of apple varieties and rootstock combinations, as well as pears, cherries, feijoas. olives, stone fruit and ornamental plants. We employ about 110 permanent full-time staff nationwide, with up to 280 workers during peak seasons, mainly winter for tree harvesting and delivery.”

Bruno has been heavily involved in the development of the dam project, serving as a director for Waimea Water and Century Water, an investor vehicle that provided additional funding at the outset of the project.  He is currently deputy chair of Waimea Water, being appointed by Waimea Irrigators.

Bruno says that the main benefit of the dam for Waimea Nurseries is a reliable water supply, which provides security for investment and growth, especially during dry periods. “The dam provides an insurance policy – it’s as simple as that. What that means for us is that we have security to invest, security to grow, and all the people and irrigators have this certainty around our water supply going forward.”

“It's a good position to be in, and although it certainly cost much more than any of us anticipated, we were committed to building a community solution, and we're very glad that it's there. We've got the benefit of it, and we can sleep more easily at night knowing that every dry summer from now on, we have the reliability of the water behind the dam to support us through those dry periods.”

“It's about preserving and maintaining land values for horticultural use long term and knowing that having one very dry summer where we could lose a lot of money will be so much less likely.”

https://www.ruraldelivery.net.nz/posts/Waimea-Fruit-Tree-Varieties-2017-04-05-04-53-46Z

https://www.ruraldelivery.net.nz/posts/Waimea-Nurseries-2017-04-06-00-33-48Z