1 Introduction
1.1 Background
In late September 2005, the Ministry for the Environment notified a proposed national environmental standard (NES) for human drinking–water sources under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).
Public notices of the submission period were placed in major papers on 24 September 2005. The notices informed people of:
- the subject matter of the proposed NES
- the Minister’s reasons for considering that the proposals are consistent with the purposes of the RMA
- how people could make a submission
- the deadline for submissions.
A copy of the public notice is included in Appendix A of this report.
During the submission period a combination of technical workshops and the Talk Environment Roadshow delivered this proposal to over 3100 people. Four workshops on the proposed drinking–water source standard were held in early October 2005 in Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch and Hamilton. In addition, a number of separate meetings were held with local government, drinking–water assessors and other stakeholder groups. The Ministry for the Environment’s roadshow travelled throughout New Zealand, holding over 30 meetings in 16 regions and talking to over 2700 people. The proposed NES was one of the key topics discussed at the roadshow meetings.
Details of the proposals and how they will be implemented were made available during the submission period in the Ministry for the Environment report Proposed National Environmental Standards for Human Drinking–water Sources.
The deadline for submissions was 5 pm on Friday 28 November 2005.
1.2 Proposed standard
The proposed standard, as notified for consultation, was worded as follows.
Part 1
New consents in drinking–water catchments shall only be granted if the proposed activity does not result in drinking–water being non–potable or unwholesome following treatment.
Part 2
Consent authorities will periodically assess the risks within drinking–water catchments to ensure that permitted and unregulated activities do not cause impacts beyond the performance of the affected treatment facilities.
Part 3
Resource consents within drinking–water catchments will have a condition that any unauthorised activity be notified to the water supplier immediately.
Part 4
Resource consents to take water for drinking will have a condition that requires appropriate action, including turning off the supply, if notified of events or activities that make the drinking–water non–potable.
The discussion document noted that the exact wording of any standard will be legally drafted after government decisions.
1.3 National environmental standard development process
An outline of the NES development process, including the informal and formal submission process, is shown in Figure 1. The Ministry has completed the public process stage, and the release of this Report on Submissions marks the end of the submissions stage.
Figure 1: NES development process
Textual description of Figure 1
The NES development process has nine stages:
- Scope proposal with stakeholders
- Discussion document
- Public and iwi notification
- Submission period
- Analysis of submissions
- Final proposal to the Minister
- Minister consults colleagues
- Legal drafting of the standard
- Draft becomes regulation
The Ministry is currently analysing the submissions and preparing the final proposal to the Minister. Stages one and two are informal, stages three and four are formal and the first four stages combined involve the public. The close of submissions occurs before the submissions are analysed after which a summary of submissions report is prepared and put forward, as part of the final proposal, to the Minister.
Note that the NES development process differs from the statutory plan and resource consent process in that there are no hearings or appeal provisions of First Schedule consultation.
1.4 Purpose
This document presents an overview of the submissions received on the proposed NES for human drinking–water sources.
- Chapter 2 is a summary of the key themes raised by submitters.
- Chapter 3 summarises general comments made by submitters.
- Chapter 4 summarises specific feedback from submitters on Parts 1 to 4 of the discussion document.
- Chapter 5 summarises the responses to questions asked in the discussion document.
This report is intended to provide a concise summary of the views expressed. It is not intended to provide an analysis of those views or recommendations in response to the submissions. This will be done in a separate report, which will be presented to Cabinet later this year.
