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3 How Could National Direction Address Issues with Ecological Flows and Water Levels?

3.1 Problem statements

3.1.1 Resource consent decisions are being made on water bodies for which there is no environmental flow or water level in place

Existing RMA provisions do not require regional councils to establish environmental flows and water levels for all water bodies. Nor is there any environmental baseline set for water quantity in the RMA, in comparison with water quality, for which sections 70 and 107 of the Act set baselines for the control of discharges.

Despite there being no legislative requirement, environmental flows and water levels are currently in place for most groundwater and surface water resources across New Zealand. However, there remain some water bodies, principally small streams or groundwater systems, for which no specific environmental flows and water levels have been determined. The lack of an established water management framework increases the potential for ecological (and other) values associated with these water bodies to be adversely impacted by water abstraction. These water bodies generally include those with relatively low levels of demand or those for which insufficient information exists to define an environmental flow or level. Many regional plans also provide limited guidance on how to deal with the impacts of water abstraction on wetland areas.

One of the principles of the Sustainable Water Programme of Action is that ‘clear environmental limits will be set for water quality and the quantity available for allocation’.10 The water quantity aspect would be achieved by having environmental flows and water levels set through regional plans on a catchment-basis, with an appropriate community process for every water body. Time and resource requirements mean that this is difficult to achieve on all water bodies in the short term, and councils sensibly concentrate on catchments with high demand and important values. This raises the question of what happens to other water bodies in the mean time.

While water bodies that do not have environmental flows and water levels set in a regional plan may not be exposed to a high proportion of demand nationally, they are commonly attributed high ecological, cultural or recreational values owing to their relatively undeveloped status. In addition, with future water demand forecast to increase across New Zealand, many of these water bodies are likely to come under increasing development pressure as major surface and groundwater resources reach full allocation.

In the absence of an established environmental flow or water level, limited guidance is available to assist the resource consent decision-making process. This may result in decisions about environmental flows and water levels being made on an ad hoc basis, with limited regard for the cumulative effects on a wider whole-catchment scale. This obviously increases the potential for adverse environmental effects to result from water abstraction and may lead to over-allocation of a resource.

3.1.2 Existing environmental flows and water levels do not always clearly define the available water

In some cases, existing environmental flows and water levels in regional plans do not clearly define the amount of available water. This situation applies to a relatively small number of streams that, although having a minimum flow specified in a regional plan, do not have an allocation limit defined, and so there is no upper limit placed on abstraction.

A lack of specified allocation limits increases the potential for ecological (and other) values to be adversely impacted by further abstraction. It does not offer any guarantee to wider public interests that further allocation of water via the resource consent process would not cause adverse impacts on the values attributed to a particular water resource. In addition, this situation results in uncertainty for both existing and potential resource users regarding access to water and continuing security of supply.

3.1.3 The existing process for setting ecological flows and water levels is costly and contentious

In many regions, the process of establishing environmental flows and water levels through the regional plan process has proved costly, time consuming and contentious. Development of specific provisions relating to water quantity can be hampered by the lack of information to characterise a resource and a lack of clarity around which technical methods are most appropriate for assessing the potential impacts of water abstraction. A national approach to selecting methods for determining ecological flows and water levels addresses one of the challenges for water management identified by regional councils.

Existing methods for determining ecological flows and water levels are already well developed and suitable for application in most hydrological settings. However, there is concern about the uncertainty in existing methods because not all responses of aquatic ecosystems to changing flows are fully understood. Caution is required in the use of methods, and the limitations of each method need to be acknowledged. As a result, regional councils and entities seeking consents are faced with the difficulty of deciding which methodologies are appropriate in particular circumstances, and then applying the chosen methodologies correctly and consistently.

A further difficulty noted is extending the commonly used habitat-based assessment methods to address flow variability and thus provide for the important ecosystem functions that require a range and patterns of flow. The application of technical methods to date has largely concentrated on setting low flows for invertebrate, fish and bird species.

A particular issue for practitioners is the need to clearly distinguish the technical tools used to generate and assess management options from the fundamental resource management decisions required. Technical methodologies used to assess individual components of the resulting environmental flow and water level do not, in themselves, pre-determine what a particular water body’s values should be or how any conflicts between such values should be resolved. Nor do they prescribe the appropriate weight to be given to environmental values compared with the social and economic values associated with water use.

A great deal of time can be spent arguing about an appropriate method for setting environmental flows, because flows cannot be ‘standardised’ in the same way that a water quality standard can. The water quality requirements for trout can be described relative to a specified and measurable level of contaminant, but trout requirements cannot be related to a given flow applicable in all rivers. Any ensuing technical debate can overshadow the more important resource management decisions regarding the appropriate level of protection to give to a waterbody.

Challenges faced by councils and other stakeholder interests include:

  • the long timeframes required to collect and analyse robust and defensible data

  • the selection of technical methodologies appropriate to particular water bodies and the debate that may arise

  • the consistent and transparent application of selected methodologies

  • uncertainties in the data used to inform the decision-making process

  • increasingly polarised stakeholders

  • increasingly contentious hearing and appeal processes.

Question 1 – Problem statements and issues

Do you agree with the problem statements and the three key problems that were identified as benefiting from national direction?

3.2 Policy objectives

The overall objective for a proposal to address ecological flows and water levels is to meet the relevant outcome of the Sustainable Water Programme of Action in a nationally consistent and cost-effective manner.

The relevant outcome of the Sustainable Water Programme of Action is to:

Provide for growing demands on water resources and encourage efficient water management through increased national direction, working with local government to identify options for supporting and enhancing local decision-making, and developing best practice.

Environmental flow and water level decisions by regional councils provide certainty to environmental interests, community interests and water users on:

  • the extent that freshwater ecological (and other) values are provided for

  • the amount of water available to meet existing and future demands on water resources.

In the absence of set environmental flows and water levels, national direction can provide that certainty. This approach will ensure appropriate protection of the values associated with the relevant water bodies until a more detailed assessment and consultation with the community is completed.

National direction can also provide consistency in the methods used to determine ecological flows and water levels. Regional councils have requested clarity on which ecological methods are appropriate for a given situation. Assessing the ‘needs of freshwater ecosystems’ is often the starting point for decisions about environmental flows and water levels, and there are a large number of technical methods for making that assessment. Specification of methods that reflect current scientific understanding would increase certainty to environmental, community and development interests on the process of determining ecological flows and water levels. This would help narrow some of the debate that arises during the regional planning process and allow environmental flow and water level decisions to be made in a more cost-effective and expedient manner, given the availability of existing methodologies. In that way, national direction on the appropriateness of technical methods would improve the management of increasing demands for water.

To contribute to the policy outcome outlined in italics above, 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.

10 April 2006 Cabinet Paper. Available at http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/water/prog-action/cabinet-paper-implementation-package.html.

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