Environment Canterbury has been flooded with submissions protesting plans for 16 dairy farms in the Mackenzie Country which would see up to 18,000 cows housed inside for much of the year.
The intense public interest, some of it from offshore, has prompted the regional council to create a special section on its internet home page to cope with the number of inquiries, the Otago Daily Times reported.
Publicity about the proposals, which some are labelling "factory farming", had prompted more than 1100 submissions by yesterday, said chief executive Bryan Jenkins.
At times during the day submissions were coming in at the rate of 20 an hour.
Publicity about the proposals on overseas websites had prompted submissions from as far away as France and Great Britain, as well as Australia.
Some of the submissions linked the issue of animal welfare, arising from housing cows in cubicles full-time for eight months of the year, and 12 hours a day for the remaining four months, with environmental factors.
The environmental issues include the large amount of effluent the 16 plants would produce - up to almost 1.8 million litres a day - being disposed of by way of irrigation and laying solids on the land.
Submissions to ECan on the plans by two companies, Five Rivers and Southdown Holdings, close at 5pm on December 18.
Submissions on the proposals of a third company -- Williamson Holdings -- close on January 18.
NZPA