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From river to tap
Water from lakes, rivers and groundwater fills our taps. Ensuring this water is safe to drink is the purpose of new environment and health regulation.
New drinking water regulation will help ensure water
is safe to drink.
The aim of a new national environmental standard coming into effect next year, is to protect the sources of our drinking water from further contamination.
“Safe drinking water is an essential human need, and even in developed countries water can be contaminated with bugs and other contaminants that can make us sick,” said Amanda Hunt, a senior adviser at the Ministry.
No single barrier is fail-safe says Hunt. Many disease outbreaks around the world have shown that treatment alone cannot be relied on to keep water safe. So, the World Health Organisation has advocated the “multi-barrier approach” which recommends having as many “barriers” as possible between the water source and the consumer. These barriers include source protection, treatment and maintenance of a safe distribution system.
The National Environment Standard for Sources of Human drinking-water focuses on the first stage of delivering healthy water to consumers – protecting water in the natural environment (eg, a river or groundwater) – and this comes under the control of the Resource Management Act. Health legislation applies once the water enters a drinking-water treatment or distribution system.
The national environmental standard will complement new health legislation – the Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Act, passed last month. The new health legislation focuses on effective water treatment and safe delivery to consumers and together with the national environmental standard they provide a “multi-barrier” approach.
“Ensuring drinking-water sources are relatively clean helps protect existing treatment plants and infrastructure. It is more cost effective to keep out contaminants, rather than having to take them out later on,” said Hunt.
Once the sources of human drinking-water standard is passed, there will be a six month phase-in to give councils, water suppliers and consent applicants time to become familiar with its requirements.
The main requirements of the standard are for regional councils to:
- decline discharge or water permits that are likely to result in community drinking water becoming unsafe for consumption following existing treatment.
- be satisfied that permitted activities in regional plans will not result in community drinking water supplies being unsafe for consumption following existing treatment.
The standard will also require both regional and district/city councils to place conditions on relevant resource consents requiring notification of drinking water suppliers if significant unintended events occur (eg, accidental spills) that may adversely affect sources of human drinking-water.
Next year, the Ministry will produce guidance material and run workshops about the standard.
For more information on the National Environment Standard for the Sources of Human Drinking-water contact Amanda Hunt on (04) 439 7521 or email amanda.hunt@mfe.govt.nz
For information on national environmental standards visit www.mfe.govt.nz/laws/standards/index.html
RMAINFO at your service
For information about the Resource Management Act call 0800 762 4636 between 9am and 4.30pm or email rmainfo@mfe.govt.nz.
By contacting this new RMAINFO service you can receive project specific, tailored information on subjects including resource consents, plan changes, preparing submissions and attending council hearings.
