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Executive Summary

In April 2006, the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry jointly released the implementation package for the Sustainable Water Programme of Action. The package aims to improve the sustainable management of freshwater, to protect our freshwater resources into the future, and to acknowledge the fundamental importance of water to all New Zealanders.

By developing a strategic and nationally consistent approach to managing our freshwater resources, the government is seeking to achieve three key national outcomes:

  • improve the quality and efficient use of freshwater by building and enhancing partnerships

  • improve the management of the undesirable effects of land use on water quality

  • provide for increasing demands on water resources and encourage efficient water management.

Recognising the importance of establishing environmental flows1 and water levels is a critical part of effective water management. Therefore, the government is proposing to develop a National Environmental Standard (NES) under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).

Objectives of the proposed NES

The proposed national environmental standard is intended to complement and enhance the existing Resource Management Act process for establishing environmental flows and water levels through regional plans. The proposal has been developed in response to a key challenge in water management identified by regional councils and others.

To contribute to the policy outcome of ‘provide for increasing demands on water and encourage efficient water management’, the specific objectives for the proposal outlined in this document are:

  • Objective 1 – To ensure that all resource consent decisions on applications to take, use, dam and divert water from rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers are made in the context of a clear limit on the extent to which flows and water levels can be altered.

  • Objective 2 – To ensure that all resource consent decisions on applications to take, use, dam and divert water from rivers, lakes, wetlands and aquifers are made in the context of a clear specification of available water.

  • Objective 3 – To reduce conflict and provide consistency on the appropriate technical methods used to assess the ecological component of environmental flows and water levels.

The preferred option to address these problems is to develop a national environmental standard that:

  • sets interim limits on the alterations to flows and/or water levels in those rivers, wetlands and groundwater systems for which there are no limits set in a proposed or operative regional plan (or other statutory instrument)2

  • provides a process for selecting the appropriate technical methods for evaluating the ecological component of environmental flows and water levels.

The proposed national environmental standard will apply to all waterbodies but the effect of the NES on any individual water resource will vary according to existing regional plan provisions.

What the proposed NES does not address

The objectives of the proposed national environmental standard do not attempt to address all issues associated with environmental flows and water levels. It addresses those issues that are most appropriately addressed through regulation, leaving practice and wider policy issues to be addressed through other complementary parts of the Sustainable Water Programme of Action. Thus, while the proposed NES should assist the decision-making process, the determination of appropriate environmental flows and water levels remains a regional council decision, with any national policy direction given through a National Policy Statement (NPS).

Consultation on the Sustainable Water Programme of Action has highlighted issues around environmental flow and water level decisions, in particular, how various social, economic and cultural factors are provided for in decisions. The proposals set out in this discussion document do not provide guidance to decision-makers on the weighting to give ecological values, or how to incorporate social and economic values into environmental flow decisions. Neither does the proposal set standards for ecological protection nor does it provide methods for assessing other values (eg, recreational).

Assessment of alternatives

When compared to the status quo, national direction through a national policy statement, legislative amendment, or the proposed national environmental standard is best able to meet the objectives in a cost-effective, timely and nationally consistent way. There is a loss of local decision-making in relation to water bodies for which there are currently no environmental flows set, but the interim limits would be over-ridden when environmental flows and water levels were established through the community processes required as part of developing a regional plan.

Costs and benefits

The potential costs and benefits of the proposed national environmental standard can be considered to occur in four main areas: environmental outcomes; the regulatory process; effects on resource users; and effects on the wider public.

A preliminary cost-benefit analysis indicates that regional councils, water users and the wider public would all experience a net benefit from the implementation of the proposal. Many of the potential costs and benefits (particularly those associated with community values and environmental outcomes) are relatively intangible. A partial quantification of costs and benefits was undertaken for the preliminary analysis. It concentrates on the costs and benefits associated with regulatory processes. The overall net benefit of the proposal over the first 10 years is estimated at $14 to $36 million, assuming a 10% discount rate. A further, more detailed analysis will be undertaken after consultation on this discussion document.

Submissions

The Ministry for the Environment welcomes public feedback on the proposal outlined through public submissions. Guidelines for making a submission are found in Section 8 of this document.

1 The term ‘environmental flow’ is used (as an alternative to ‘minimum flow’) because of the recognised ecological and cultural importance of flow variability.

2 Such as a Water Conservation Order or a National Environmental Standard.

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