Dougherty said any decision about increasing NCC s contribution would be for the full council to make. “Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council are currently finalising the agreement to pay the originally requested contribution of $5m,” Dougherty said. “This is still on track to be agreed in the first quarter of this year. However, the agreement will require the approval of a full council meeting.” Under construction in the Lee Valley, about 36km southeast of Nelson, the dam build is being managed by Waimea Water Ltd – a joint venture between Tasman District Council and Waimea Irrigators Ltd. When news of the latest $29m blowout was revealed publicly on February 25, Tasman District mayor Tim King said the city council would be asked for an increased contribution “given the water that they receive as part of that arrangement and the change in cost since that was originally arrived at”.
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The level of nitrate in the waters under parts of the Waimea Plains has long been of concern.
Agricultural and livestock land uses are the primary sources of nitrate contamination in the waters on and under the Waimea Plains, a new report has found. A summary of existing science from catchment management consultant Andrew Fenemor for the Tasman District Council said monthly groundwater data suggested that historic contamination from a piggery that closed in the 1980s has “likely passed and that the nitrate signature in these wells is caused by local and upstream intensive land uses, particularly market gardening”.