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Water conservation orders
Application for a Water Conservation Order on the Rangitata River
Fish and Game New Zealand lodged an application for a water conservation order on the Rangitata River (PDF 34 KB) on 23 December 1999. A special tribunal was appointed in October 2000. The Chair of the Tribunal was Dr Janet Ward, and the members were Claire Mulcock and Dr Murray Parsons.
The special tribunal called for submissions, and submissions were received between December 2000 and February 2001. A total of 1100 submissions were received and the hearing was held in October and November 2001.
In October 2002, the special tribunal released its report and this included a draft water conservation order.
- Special Tribunal Report: Contents (PDF 147 KB)
- Special Tribunal Report: Part I and II (PDF 439 KB)
- Special Tribunal Report: Part III (PDF 718 KB)
- Special Tribunal Report: Part IV, V and VI (PDF 496 KB)
- Special Tribunal Report: Part VII and VIII (PDF 408 KB)
- Special Tribunal Report: Appendices (PDF 421 KB)
Submissions were made to the Environment Court on the report and the Court held its hearings on these submissions in October/November 2003 and May/June 2004.
The Environment Court released its interim decision in August 2004. A copy of the interim decision can be obtained by emailing wco@mfe.govt.nz.
The final decision was released by the Environment Court on 22 September 2005.
The Minister for the Environment announced on 23 June 2006 that the Rangitata Water Conservation Order has been gazetted. The water conservation order will take effect 20 working days from its date of notification in the Gazette (23 June 2006).
Media release: Rangitata Water Conservation Order is made (Beehive website)
A copy of the Water Conservation (Rangitata River) Order 2006 (PDF 963 KB) is available in the Gazette on the Department of Internal Affairs website.
Last updated: 6 January 2009
