Executive Summary
In April 2006, the Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry jointly released the Sustainable Water Programme of Action implementation package. The package aims to improve the sustainable management of freshwater, protect our freshwater resources into the future, and 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.
There are many elements of the implementation package that will rely on users and regional councils knowing how much water is actually taken. Examples include facilitating voluntary transfer of take consents, better uptake of water user groups, managing environmental flows and managing over-allocated catchments. Therefore, as part of its implementation package, the government is proposing an industry-scoped National Environmental Standard on water measuring devices. This will become a legally enforceable regulation under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). This is just one of several policy tools being developed to provide national direction for future water management (see Appendix 3 for a diagrammatic representation of all the proposed policy tools).
The proposed National Environmental Standard would set minimum requirements for the installation and operation of new water measuring devices, including the transfer of data to regional councils. The Standard would apply to all water takes that need resource consent, except in specific circumstances. It would not address water take at a household level; instead it will address measuring water takes at the first point of abstraction from the resource - be it river, lake, dam or aquifer.
The proposed National Environmental Standard would ensure the accurate and comprehensive measurement of water takes to facilitate the sustainable management of New Zealand's water resource. It would do this by:
- setting minimum requirements for all new water measuring devices that are installed
- defining situations where water measuring devices are compulsory.
The proposed Standard would also:
- ensure consistency at national, regional and catchment levels for the measuring and reporting of actual water taken
- enable water users and regulators to easily determine compliance with water take consents
- provide accurate information about actual water taken in any catchment.
This discussion document outlines the rationale for measuring water takes, and the scope and intent of the proposed National Environmental Standard. The Ministry welcomes public feedback on the proposals outlined, and guidelines for making submissions are provided in Section 7. Specific wording is not proposed in this document. The exact wording of the Standard would be drafted when the government has made decisions in the light of this consultation.
