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Greymouth local government meeting

16 February 2005

Regional freshwater issues

  • Water allocation is not an issue in the Region. Farmers do not usually have to irrigate land.
  • There are no bore interference issues.
  • Currently receive a lot of submissions from the Department of Conservation (DoC) on plans, policies and resource consents.
  • Council is in need of on-going support in the form of whole of government submissions and policy to determine which water bodies are different for particular values.
  • Mining, forestry and dairying activities do have an impact on water quality.
  • The Council is targeting the problem on a catchment basis. For example the Lake Brunner area where there is a non-regulatory approach being taken.
  • The regional council has a small resource base to work from.

Westland District Council issues

  • Public water supplies mostly come from unprotected catchments. Quality is an issue. Some water supplies come from water bodies on the DoC estate. One option is to restrict the activities on and around these water bodies.
  • Oxidation pond discharge. The relationship between the quality of the discharge and the associated costs.
  • Development is taking place on the fringe of wetlands.
  • Stormwater discharge issues from roading and town areas.
  • Refuse site discharges and the costs of these discharges.
  • Economic development includes dairying and potential for hydro. The Council is an advocate for development.
  • Costs to councils for resource consent processing.
  • Solutions to the problems are reliant on the costs.

Questions/issues raised

  • Concern about government direction becoming government dictation.
  • There is potential for resource consents becoming a tangible asset if water has a market value.
  • The increase in tourism and its impacts are concerning. There is currently not the infrastructure to cope with increasing tourism. Councils have to bare the burden of paying for the environmental impacts. There needs to be cohesion amongst government departments to deal with environmental impacts.
  • Funding is the biggest issue. The Department of Conservation should be paying its way for the huge areas in the Crown owned estate.
  • Campervan waste disposal is an issue. There could be taxation on campervans.
  • Water harvesting should be used more. This would provide users with the ability to utilize water across a range of seasons more equitably. Dams could be useful during time of low flow.
  • If a National Policy Statement is specific, it could be demanding on local ratepayers. A strength of the RMA is that quality decision-making can be made by local communities. It is more appropriate to have local decisions made on water. Local government is better at encouraging people to cooperate and to take ownership of the problem. Lake Brunner catchment is a good example of communities working together.
  • There are different issues in different areas and it would be difficult for a national policy statement to address these issues. Central government has a role to monitor and assist rather than to demand. Some guidelines are needed, for example, for water allocation.
  • Security of supply is important. Existing investments need to be taken into account.
  • Market trading could work with some restraints.
  • Local solutions for local problems should be retained because all regions are different. An overall plan for all New Zealand will not work.
  • Funding for information would be useful, and to allow community based projects to be implemented. Funding should be longer term and easier to apply for. The current funding period of two years is not long enough.
  • The Long Term Council Community Planning process has been imposed on local government, but it does provide more credit to local decision-making. There is no central government support for using resources. Central government should not be telling ratepayers how they should spend their money.
  • Have to look at benefits to the economy, human health and the environment. If the cost of doing better is not affordable then things will remain as they are. Affordability is the bottom line.
  • Is the issue related to the cost of the resource consent process or the cost of meeting the requirements of the consent?
  • Costs are high for sewage and drinking water.
  • Market mechanisms are being raised to allocate resources to more beneficial uses. A mining licence system has been operating for years but no trading has occurred because people want to protect their rights. The same could happen to water if we implement a trading regime.
  • How can you determine what is a highest use value over time?
  • Small towns tend to take water from the nearest creek and springs. Probably have not been granted resource consents and not all of the uses are permitted. There is a question around whether these people have existing rights? They are regarded as having existing domestic rights. District plans provide for domestic water use on site. The costs of upgrading to drinking water standards would be significant.
  • The Council is currently working on a Global Positioning System database to identify where water takes are for air drops of 1080.
  • It is important not to export the problems of larger cities to smaller centres. A national application of standards is not needed. It would be better to target the areas where there are actual problems. The national environmental standards for coal and wood burners will only be effective in about 20 places across the country. The Council has worked hard to get coal burners out of the national standard.
  • National tools need to be issue based. Targeted and assisted solutions to problems would be a better approach. The same criteria should not be applied to areas where there is not a problem.
  • An example is the banning of unlined rubbish dumps. Monitoring has shown that downstream water quality of the rubbish dumps is not an issue. Costs of research and expertise to prove that there is not a negative effect from particular activities is significant.
  • There are problems around setting environmental bottom lines for water quality. It is an expensive process and often involves court battles over methods for setting in-stream flows. Are there plans to develop guidance on easy to use techniques for setting in-stream flows?
  • The Lake Brunner project is a good example of getting to the water body before it gets to the Lake Taupo state. Funding has been provided by the Sustainable Management Fund for the project. There is a need for support to get ahead with dealing with potential problems. It is often difficult to convince the community that particular issues are important. A potential role for central government is to support a proactive approach at a local level, for something that would be difficult to fund with local rates. It would most likely have national benefit.
  • A whole of government approach to making submissions would help prevent departments with an advocacy role from advocating specific view points. Separate submissions from central government are not in keeping with the sustainable development approach of equal economic, social, cultural and environmental values. The Conservation Act sits outside of the sustainable development approach. There is a need to obtain a broader view from central government.
  • Where is the balance in the water bodies of national importance lists?
  • There is a problem with comparing the criteria for different values in the Water Bodies of National Importance Projects. How to accommodate all the values or to determine whether there is actually a threat to the water bodies. Threat rather than perception would be a better way of looking at it. Would probably find that there wouldn't be major threat on west coast.
  • Government should provide comments to hearing committees about the balance of the competing values in the case of resource consents.
  • Water Conservation Orders should have been cancelled when the RMA came into effect. They add an extra layer of regulation. It would be better to have one system rather than a multi-layered system.
  • There is a need for a good scientific base to establish an allocation system. The system then should be implemented by an independent body.
  • The cost of the implementation of an allocation process should be relevant to the threat to the environment. Otherwise it could be an expensive bureaucratic process with little effect.
  • Water meters would be useful for determining how much water is actually used.
  • There is an option to have a number or formula in a National Policy Statement or National Environmental Standards which requires that a portion of water should be allocated for low flow until the actual low flows are determined. A specified methodology rather than number could be useful.
  • Regional councils do not want to be required to do anything and do not want existing work undertaken to be overridden.
  • The addressing of any national issues on the Coast should be accompanied by funding.
  • Action 6: Develop special mechanisms for regional councils how does this action relate to the RMA amendment to allow regional councils to allocate resources? The Department of Conservation prevents the regional council from allocating resources.
  • There is double-regulation between the Conservation Act and the RMA with the permit system and resource consent process.
  • Action 4: Increase central government participation in regional planning submissions need to be developed and lodged using a whole of government approach. Government needs to determine some of the balance between the values of sustainable development at the national level, rather than leaving the debates to take place at the local level. There could be significant Environment Court costs as a result.
  • A whole of government approach could be included at the beginning of the planning process. Would this require timeframes for plan development or resource consents to be extended because the Cabinet process could be time consuming.
  • Action 5: Increase central government's support for local government The Council has to prioritise where monitoring is undertaken. The funding of scientific information would be useful as well as funding on an extended time frame greater than two years would be useful.
  • Requirements in the form of regulations will need support for information, equipment, and monitoring.
  • A mobile team of planners and subsidies are supported. The Council operates on a small rating base with no port revenue like some other regional councils.
  • The possibility of "clawing back" water resources is concerning if compensation is not provided. There is a need to recognise the investment that has already been made and the possible lack of production and income as a result of a decrease in the available water.
  • Community benefits which are obtained through constraint on private property rights is a concern.
  • Action 6: Develop special mechanisms for regional councils, and in particular under the alternative or complementary approaches, "water use measuring systems could be made compulsory". Measuring might not be appropriate for small takes. There is a need for flexibility for different smaller scale situations.
  • "Regional councils may need additional tools" should be changed to "regional councils will need additional tools". Councils need to be able to plan in advance of an event to reduce the level of risk. Tools need to be made available for the situations that may arise. Forward thinking is important.
  • Charging for water - we would need to ask what people's thinking is, and if this is effects based.
  • A water efficiency diagnostic service made available to councils would be useful for determining actual use.
  • Action 7: Enhance the transfer of allocated water betweenusers There is a problem with picking winners. Any provisions for transfers should be easy to use to encourage the sharing of water.
  • Action 8: Develop market mechanisms to manage diffuse discharges How can you quantify the level of discharge according to the soil type, stock numbers etc? This action would require significant information and monitoring.
  • The turn over of the water in lakes should be taken into account as well as soil types
  • There is a role for central government to facilitate ideas, best practice, and to provide tools. Landcare Trust is a useful organisation for disseminating ideas.
  • The effects based approach of the RMA should be kept in mind. It should not be seen as neglect if regions choose not to use particular tools available.
  • The document implies that central government could take over some roles, for example, the option to sign off regional plans. Are we going back to the Ministry of Works days?
  • The Programme is centralised and does not attempt to take people with along with the ideas. It is attempting to make the system more bureaucratic. The Programme needs to focus on where the problems are coming from and education programmes at the ground level.
  • Tools and resources should come at risk reduction stage phase.
  • Central government has a role in developing education and awareness campaigns and working with regional councils.
  • There needs to be education on the issues. We need to be able to make information available on particular issues and show the progress that has been made. An education programme needs to be customised for particular areas. Catchment based education programmes are more effective rather than large scale advertising campaigns which can result in overloading of information and a feeling of helplessness. The Landcare Trust approach is a good model.
  • Agencies need to work alongside local communities. Some of the good work that has already started should be continued.
  • Cities and towns need to be included in the Programme. The Programme seems to target rural land users and not urban users.
  • Action 10: Enhance Māori participation Is this necessary ? Local government already has requirements under the Local Government Act.
  • Action 5: Increase central government's support for local government How will this work? Where will the trade-offs be? How will the funding be determined?

Last updated: 25 November 2008