Summer irrigation in Canterbury (File photo). Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes An independent commissioner is to consider the MHV water cooperative's bid for a replacement consent to irrigate 56,000 hectares of private farmland for the next 10 years. However, opponents feared higher levels of nitrate would be discharged, which they said could affect drinking water. The public cannot make submissions, because they were able to do so as part of the original consent process. But environmental group Aotearoa Water Action believed their views should be taken into account when the replacement consent is considered, too, and said there was a case to challenge that.