The Clyde Dam

Story

The Clyde Dam, New Zealand's third largest hydroelectric dam, is built on the Clutha River near the town of Clyde. It is owned and operated by Contact Energy.HistoryThere was considerable controversy when the dam was planned because it would flood many houses and orchards upstream at Cromwell, as well as the scenic Cromwell Gorge, which was a highlight of the then young but growing New Zealand tourism industry. Construction also required replacement of a stretch of highway and the closure of the Otago Central Railway beyond Clyde, though materials for the dam would provide significant traffic for the rest of the line which was experiencing a drop in freight tonnage. To mitigate these problems, the Kirk Labour government decided a low dam should be built at Clyde. This decision was overturned by the following National government, who preferred a high dam.There was also debate about whether the dam was needed. National's support for a controversial aluminium smelter at Aramoana, another of Prime Minister Sir Rob Muldoon's Think Big projects of the late 1970s and early 1980s, was one justification propounded for the dam. An initial grant of water rights for the dam was overturned by the High Court following an appeal by landowners. National overturned this decision, after bargaining for the support of Social Credit (who had initially opposed a high dam), in the Clutha Development (Clyde Dam) Empowering Act 1982. The Act was later repealed by the following National government on 1 October 1991, when it was superseded by the Resource Management Act 1991.