OTAGO + SOUTHLAND | Region Development

[Richard7666]

The Waitaki has changed phenomenally over the past decade. I actually liked it when it was all dry and rough and had that real 'Central Otago' look; now it's full of massive irrigators and green lush paddocks =(

[Richard7666]

Lignite factory likely for Mataura:

"A processing plant that makes lignite burn hotter and cleaner could be operational in Southland by late next year, Solid Energy said.

The Government-owned coalmining company yesterday announced a joint venture with Colorado-based GTL Energy Ltd to investigate the feasibility of building a briquetting plant in the former paper mill at Mataura, 10km east of its New Vale coal mine.

The plant, the first of its kind in New Zealand, would create about 10 jobs and process an estimated 100,000 tonnes of lignite a year. Solid Energy mined 240,000 tonnes of lignite from the New Vale mine during the past financial year.

Solid Energy communications director Vicki Blyth said the company would finish technical and economic feasibility studies, complete engineering designs and apply for resource consents during the next few months.

The decision to proceed was expected to be made early next year and would be based on demand from South Island industrial and commercial customers, she said.

The briquetting process removes moisture from lignite, which raises the thermal value and reduces emissions.

Solid Energy new energy general manager Brett Gamble said GTL Energy's technology would provide a higher grade and cleaner energy source.

Upgrading lignite offered a great opportunity to use New Zealand's vast and relatively untapped Southland resources, he said.

Ms Blyth said the lignite briquettes could be used for home heating and the feasibility of trucking briquettes to the closed Ohai Mine, to be bagged for the home market, would be investigated.

It was a better option to truck the briquettes to Ohai than shift the bagging plant to Mataura given supply to the home market may be for only a short time, she said.

Solid Energy remained committed to withdrawing from supplying coal to the household market by the start of 2013, in line with the National Environmental Standards for air quality. However, that date could change given the Government's announcement it would review the timing of implementation of the standards.

Ms Blyth said she did not know the cost of setting up the plant at the disused paper mill.

Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks said it would be good to see the paper mill, which has sat in a forlorn state for a few years, get a new lease on life.

The investment in new technology and creation of employment was all good news, particularly in these times when everyone talked about recession, he said."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...ignite-factory

[Richard7666]

Wanaka town plan attacked


Plans for a second commercial centre in Wanaka would be a "death by a thousand cuts" for the lakeside town centre, Sustainable Wanaka said.

In a hearing in Wanaka yesterday, Sustainable Wanaka chairman John Beattie said the Queenstown Lakes District Council was being led by developers into supporting the Three Parks development, in violation of promises to the community in the Wanaka 2020 plan.

"We'll have an old town, new town before you know it. It is a death by a thousand cuts," he said.

The Three Parks plan change would allow Allan Dippie's Willowridge Development to build a second town centre on 100ha off State Highway 84, with about 750 houses and visitor accommodation around a big retail core.

The council became involved after deciding the present town centre could not absorb the demands for commercial growth, particularly big stores like supermarkets.

It has faced opposition from many people, including some competing developers, with concerns the new development would detract from the vitality of the town centre.

Mr Beattie said the plan was inconsistent with the Wanaka 2020 plan, a community-supported growth strategy produced in 2002, which never indicated there was a need for a massive new commercial centre.

"The retail, commercial and business area proposed in the plan change are bigger than the existing commercial centre."

Mr Beattie also questioned the council's role as the sponsor of the plan change and arbitrator at the hearing, with commissioners Gillian McLeod and Leigh Overton also sitting councillors. "Council and its officer, a developer, led on (Three Parks) Plan Change 16."

In response to the questions, Ms McLeod said she and Mr Overton were "not completely on one side or another".

Council planner Daniel Wells said while Three Parks was a council plan change, Willowridge Development had funded most of it.

Helwick Holdings, a commercial landlord in the present town centre, also spoke in opposition to the plan change yesterday, saying there was no need for "big-box" commercial developments in Wanaka.

The hearing continues today, with Willowridge Developments presenting evidence in support of the plan change.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...-plan-attacked

and

Oil rigs may get OK to use island


Environment Southland proposes to smooth the waters for oil companies by changing its regional coastal plan.

The council yesterday considered changes to the plan to allow exploration rigs in Paterson Inlet at Stewart Island.

Vessels of more than 1000 gross register tonnage are banned from entering the inlet, which is also designated a nature reserve.

Council resource planner Walt Denley says in a report to council that if the oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and OMV, pressed ahead with exploration in the Great South Basin, a decision due next month, they would want rigs in the area by the end of next year.

A floating area is needed for the huge ships that carry oil rigs to be temporarily stationed in the calm waters of the inlet to offload their cargo.

The second change proposed that the rigs could sit in a refuge area near the entrance to Big Glory Bay, to prepare for passage to sea or for maintenance.

After the meeting, council policy and planning manager Ken Swinney said Paterson Inlet was suitable because it was sheltered and of the right depth.

To float a rig on or off, a heavy-lift ship needed about 25 metres of sheltered water to partially submerge, enough for a rig to be floated and dragged off by tugboats, he said.

The entire operation would take about 12 hours, while the time spent in the refuge area was expected to be about three weeks at a time, he said.

The exploration rigs did not carry oil and the contracting firm that could be used had an excellent environmental record, he said.

The council was also exploring a deed of agreement with companies, similar to the cruise ship industry, which paid a fee to enter southern waters, including Stewart Island, Mr Swinney said.

Under that regime, entry to the inlet could be deemed a permitted activity otherwise a resource consent process would be needed, which would delay operations, he said.

The proposed changes were the groundwork to speed up the process if the companies gave the green light, he said.

"We don't want to be the ones to ankle-tap the industry."

Environment Southland staff will investigate the plan changes further before reporting back to the council at later date.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...-to-use-island

[DML2]

Goood goood

[metroman]

http://www.southlandnz.com/Home/VentureSouthland.aspx This site has some very interesting information on Southland. It is definetly a province that is going places.

[UglyBob]

THis is a big one:

$1.4 billion fertiliser project unveiled
ODT, 24 Sep 2009

Solid Energy is teaming up with Southern fertiliser giant Ravensdown to investigate a $1.4 billion fertiliser plant in Eastern Southland which could create up to 500 jobs.
Read more

[Richard7666]

Wow that is big isn't it. Is that just for the plant alone, or including all the supporting jobs that will be created? It's still a lot if the latter, but if the former, that's like, 3000 more Gorons.

[metroman]

And it is not the only significant energy development involving lignite on the drawing board either. I was flicking through one of the N.Z. newspapers today and it said that a significant number of recent building approvals were for gas and mining projects, the figure was around 23. There is definetly plenty going on in this sector and Southland is going to be at the centre of it.

[UglyBob]

More on the proposed fertiliser project:

$1.5 billion project mooted
ODT Fri, 25 Sep 2009

State-owned coal miner Solid Energy and southern fertiliser co-operative Ravensdown will investigate building a $1.5 billion urea fertiliser plant near Gore to make use of the area's vast reserves of lignite and potentially create 500 jobs.
Read more

The Chair of the Sustainabilty Council was interviewed on Radio NZ about this one this morning -- he's not keen due to concerns about increasing ozone emissions and encouraging dairy conversion ... I predict some warfare.

[KingKong1]

Thats stupid, it would be less damaging to the environment by creating a domestic supply instead of importing carbon mile intense Chinese made Urea which would be produced in worse environmential standards.

[KingKong1]

This is big. BUT it is not the 'big one', that title can be reserved for the planned $10 billion lignite to diesel plant which would be 5 times as large as the lignite to urea plant and result in NZ becoming a net exporter of diesel potentially worth $3-4 billion to the ecomomy per annum. Early days but all going well it will be under construction by 2017. Solid Energy are promising $1 a litre diesel from this plant, I will believe that when I see it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...nite-plan-soon

[Richard7666]

Does this mean Gore will be the largest city in the SI by 2050?

[metroman]

The whole of Southland is going to have a massive overhaul if these ventures eventuate aswell as the GSB. Don't forget there is also Fonterra which will expand some of its Dairy operations. There are also a few other promising mining ventures going on in the province as well. Don't forget the living cells technology project for diabetes and the giant telelscope project.

[Richard7666]

Big cheese:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...worlds-biggest

A new $212 million milk dryer commissioned this week makes the Edendale dairy factory the biggest raw milk processing plant in the world, according to Fonterra.

The new dryer, called ED4, is the world's largest and most efficient milk dryer, capable of producing 35 shipping containers full of milk powder every day, the co-operative said.

The dryer has the capacity to turn 100 litres of milk into 10 kilograms of milk powder every second, and can produce more than 700 tonnes of milk powder a day.

Fonterra New Zealand manufacturing general manager Brent Taylor told The Southland Times the new dryer highlighted the importance of Edendale and Southland to the co-operative.

"We do have more capacity than actual milk supplies but as cow numbers and farm conversions increase, the capacity will reach a maximum and further expansion will be required."

In 1992 the Edendale plant could handle 600,000 litres a day, which has grown to 15 million litres a day since ED4 was commissioned. Although processing only 7.5 million litres a day this season, it could reach capacity in about three years, Mr Taylor said.

Fonterra believes the Edendale factory had the largest capacity of any plant in the world.

The project was approved in January 2008, with construction starting in June last year.

Up to 550 tradesmen were working on the site at the peak of construction, with half of those Southland contractors.

An extra 40 permanent staff have been employed on the site because of the expansion. The new dryer was needed because milk production forecasts in the South Island, and particularly Southland, showed supply would eventually outstrip processing capacity, Mr Taylor said.

Fonterra's Clandeboye plant, near Temuka, was an option but the Edendale site was chosen because of its reputation and expertise in powder production.

Along with whole, skim and buttermilk powders, the Edendale factory produces about 15,000 tonnes of cheddar cheese for markets in Japan, the Middle East and the Philippines, refined and edible-grade lactose, whey cheese, casein, anhydrous milk fat and whey protein concentrate.

While the new dryer will meet processing requirements for about three years, it appears further expansion is inevitable. The co-operative wants to increase its business by sustainably increasing its milk supply and expanding its processing capacity.

Fonterra Edendale hub manager Keith Mason said there was plenty of sheepland in Southland and Otago that could be converted to dairy to meet demand for dairy products.

Global demand rises on average 3 per cent a year with Asia, the Middle East and Latin America the emerging markets.

Even if there were no extra conversions, milk output would still grow because farmers were increasing production through herd and pasture improvements, Mr Mason said.

"There's underlying growth that will come through regardless of conversions."

While the conversion rate had slowed during the past two years, the increasing demand for dairy products, Fonterra's forecast payout increase announcement this week, an improving global situation and low interest rates could fuel another round of change, Mr Mason said.

[UglyBob]

$400m cement works near Oamaru:

Holcim decision unlikely for a year
ODT Mon, 28 Sep 2009

While North Otago people are keen to know whether a $400 million cement plant will be built in the Waiareka Valley near Weston, Holcim (New Zealand) is asking them to be patient so a "careful and responsible" decision can be made.
Read more

[metroman]

I hope doesn't loose out as a result of this.

[Richard7666]

Proposed monorail 'assault on environment'

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...on-environment

A proposed $150 million monorail that will run through the habitat of several endangered species in Southland has been called an assault on the environment by Forest and Bird.

Riverside Holdings is hoping to carry passengers from Queenstown to Lake Te Anau via a catamaran journey across Lake Wakatipu, followed by an all-terrain-vehicle trip to Kiwi Burn and a 43km monorail trip to Te Anau Downs on the Milford Rd.

A revised concession application, obtained by The Southland Times under the Official Information Act, reveals the construction of the monorail will require a 200m "easement corridor" and the removal of 22ha of forest.

It will largely run through the Snowdon Forest, part of which falls into the Southwest World Heritage site, which is home to several critically endangered birds, lizards, plants and the short-tailed bat.

The application also suggests the maintenance road alongside the monorail could be turned into a mountainbike trail, linking Lake Wakatipu to Lake Manapouri.

Forest and Bird Otago Southland conservation officer Sue Maturin said the proposal was another assault on an area of New Zealand with many endangered plants and animals. The area was only one of three places that the short-tailed bat existed in the country, the others being northwest Nelson and Codfish Island.

Riverside Holdings director John Beattie accepted the area was sensitive and contained populations of yellowheads, kakas and long-tailed bats, but denied the proposal would be an assault.

A bat-expert had searched for the short-tailed bat and had found no evidence of it near the suggested monorail route, he said.

The company had proposed a series of pest-eradication schemes to help protect endangered species, Mr Beattie said. Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno was said she was also concerned about the environmental impact of the proposal and the effect it could have on the "Around the Mountain" cycletrail.

THE PLAN

The Fiordland Link Experience proposal wThe access road will double as a connecting leg in a multi-day mountainbike trail taking in five lakes and six rivers. wThe trip would initially be designed for 160 passengers at a time but additional carriages could be added to cater for up to 224 passengers, with an ultimate capacity of 1 million passengers a year. wThe monorail track width will be 4-6m and it is expected a large amount of the canopy will remain. wOne hundred fulltime staff would be required, most based in Te Anau. wEndangered or at-risk species found along the monorail route include two types of bats, nine birds including the South Island kaka, four lizards and six types of plants. wA separate proposal from Milford Dart to build a 10.2km tunnel between the Routeburn and Hollyford valleys was more advanced and a decision is likely to be presented to the Southland Conservation Board at their next meeting.

[Richard7666]

Te Anau needs room to expand, could treble in size:

Te Anau's residential areas will treble in size if proposed changes are approved by a resource consent committee next week.

Residential and industrial areas for development will be thrashed out next week at a major resource consent hearing that has been almost three years in the planning.

The Southland District Council is making three major variations to its district plan to allow for the expansion.

Eighty-seven submissions have been received and the council's resource consents committee will hear from submittors on Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday.

The major changes include expanding the existing industrial area by about 70 per cent to the east.

Much bigger additions are planned for residential-zoned (Urban Resource Area) land and extensions to the north and east would potentially more than double the size of the township.

Changes are also planned for the Te Anau Lakeside Protection Area, aimed mainly at tightening the rules on the height of buildings and stipulating a 12m limit.

Council group manager environment and community Bruce Halligan said the proposed plan changes were first suggested by the Te Anau Community Board.

"They were concerned about where future development went rather than leaving it up to each individual application to come up."

The industrial area was almost full and needed to expand, Mr Halligan said.

The new zones would clarify where various types of development could occur and would ensure the township was expanded outwards rather than being spread out in small developments across the basin.

Individual applications have already been approved for large subdivisions in the some of the new areas, and the variations to the plan would make future applications easier.

Mr Halligan said there were some concerns from submittors that the increased residential areas went "too far".

There were also concerns from the Department of Conservation and NZ Fish and Game about stormwater runoff. The council believes it has enough rules to manage those issues.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...anges-approved

[Richard7666]

Council looks at next stage of Gore sports complex

The Gore District Council is to have a look at a stage four for its multisports complex sooner rather than later.

The decision has been prompted by a request from Sport Southland to relocate its existing office in Gore's central business area. It proposes placing a transportable office next to the main entrance of the complex.

Gore district councillors were this week quite happy with the idea, providing there was room, free of charge, for MLT Event Centre supervisor Dan Winkel, who has been working out of the swimming pool control room because of a lack of office space.

However, Cr Hugh Gardyne questioned whether the proposed site of the transportable office was right given it may have to be shifted relatively soon after being set up.

Stage three of the complex, the MLT Event Centre, has been open for only eight months but already shortcomings have been identified, mainly the lack of a kitchen.

Parks and recreation manager Ian Soper said yesterday the lack of a dedicated operational area was also an issue. He believed Sport Southland's proposed site was to have featured permanent offices and a kitchen in the original plans. There may have been squash courts as well.

Mr Soper said the Young Farmer of the Year competition, held in the event centre, highlighted the difference between using the building as a sports stadium or an event centre. The council had been fortunate to get an insight, without the liability, into what this involved, he said.

For the Young Farmer final, matting had to be hired from Stadium Southland to protect the netball courts, and outside caterers with fully self-contained kitchens were given the task of feeding the crowd of about 1300.

Mr Soper said any discussion about completion of the complex, or stage 4 as it was often referred to, would come up during the long-term council community plan review in 2012.

However, councillors have asked for information about the original plans and a timeline to be included in a detailed report on Sport Southland's proposal, to be presented to this month's council meeting. http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...sports-complex

[Richard7666]

Stewart Island cruise ships up pressure for levy

Stewart Island is in desperate need for the long-contested visitor levy to be put in place, as cruise ships add pressure to the island's infrastructure.

Southland District Council Stewart Island ward councillor Bruce Ford said toilets and waste bins were being put under pressure, while things like footpaths were necessary to keep people safe during the influx when the ships arrived.

Seventeen ships are expected to visit the island this year, ranging in passenger numbers from a few hundred to 1400.

This, combined with visitors from the mainland has placed excessive pressure on the island and some residents say it is getting worse.

Mr Ford said the community relied on the visitors and he wanted to make their visit pleasant, but the pressure was too great and there was no money for the upgrades and maintenance needed.

"Tourists are certainly a big help to the community, if we haven't got business coming like that we stuff up the infrastructure ... (so) we don't want to upset them," he said.

The levy, which proposes a $5 fee for each visitor, would bring about $150,000 to the island a year and was something Mr Ford had been pushing for about 30 years, but it had been held up by a few select people who he would not name, he said.

The influx of people from four cruise ships visiting since last Saturday had caused the island to run out of toilet paper this week, while the lack of footpaths put the tourists in danger when they were all over the roads, Mr Ford said.

"We struggle to get footpaths because we have no money, you cannot take that sort of money off the ratepayers – we need the visitor levy to happen ASAP," he said.

Tourism operator Peter Tait said the lack of footpaths on the island was especially dangerous for visitors departing cruise ships from Paterson Inlet because they were forced to walk from Golden Bay along a narrow bottleneck in the road to Halfmoon Bay to food outlets and shops.

He always tooted while driving by to make sure they were aware he was there, but he was not sure if anyone else did, he said.

Mr Ford said he was unsure how much revenue tourists generated in the community, but everyone on the island benefited from them in some way, whether directly through tourism or through the increase in services such as regular cargo deliveries.

Stewart Island Community Board chairman Jon Spraggon said the levy was expected to go before the Government in April and if signed off in Parliament he hoped a bylaw would be implemented within 12 months.

"Tourism has put a big strain on the island," he said. http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...ssure-for-levy