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The four dam options on the Clutha River made public by Contact Energy - Source: ONE News -
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Contact Energy is revisiting plans to build another hydro dam on the South Island's Clutha River.
The electricity company has launched a website asking for feedback on four possible dams but has received a mixed reaction to the controversial project.
Contact Energy is revisiting its plans because of rising power demand but the Clutha has already been the subject of protests over two dams - the Roxburgh and former prime minister Robert Muldoon's Think Big Project at Clyde.
Now four options have been made public and one would see the township of Beaumont flooded. The smallest is a gravity dam at Luggate, another is at Queensbury while the biggest is a concrete dam called Tuapeka Mouth.
The Tuapeka Dam would provide the most electricity, but would also have the greatest impact. Its lake would be 3,500 hectares and it would stretch 50 kiliometres all the way upriver to the township of Millers Flat.
But the biggest impact would be on Beaumont township which would be completely flooded - something many of the locals are not happy about.
Opinions are mixed at Millers Flat, as some people believe the dam that would flood Beaumont would improve the values of properties, produce jobs and give the township a much brighter future.
Contact says it will make a decision next year over which option it will go with.
"It gives an opportunity for people to have more consideration of the options, more consideration of the pros and cons of the particular projects," says Mark Trigg, Contact Energy's General Manager of Generation.
It could then take another 10 years before any new dam is up and running.
