Recent amendments to and withdrawals of applications to take water from the Waikato River catchment have eased allocation pressure on the waterway, said Waikato Regional Council in an announcement today.

This effectively removes the so-called Waikato River Deferral Queue and is a culmination of council consenting staff working with existing consent holders and new applicants over many years to ensure the volumes of water being used or applied for are reasonable and justifiable with regards to intended use.

Last year’s Waikato Water Summit, called as a result of Auckland’s water supply issues, was also a catalyst for further discussion and consideration by applicants of their needs.

As a result, several large water take applicants recently either reduced the amount being sought or withdrew their application altogether. This has reduced the demand from the river by a combined 181 million litres per day (MLD), said the regional council’s Resource Use Acting Director Brent Sinclair.

“Staff have worked to strike the balance between genuine need and protecting our freshwater resource for generations to come,” he said.

“As a result, the first-in first-served system, which has been in place since 2012 for takes from the river catchment, no longer applies. The exception being where there is a sub-catchment with localised allocation pressures.

“What that means is that there is less water being sought from the river than the allocation limits set in the regional plan,” Mr Sinclair said.

“We’ll now be focusing on processing those applications that have been in the queue the longest. I want to reassure our communities that applications will not be rubberstamped. There will still be a robust assessment of all applications by our consenting staff.”

Mr Sinclair said staff would continue to look at whether there was a genuine need for the amount of water being requested and assess the impacts of each take. There may also be localised sub-catchment allocation pressures which would need to be carefully considered.

Mr Sinclair added that the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater Management – released by the coalition government last year – would also need to be taken into account, in particular for those irrigating pasture on dairy farms, and in proximity to wetlands.

All up, there’s around 370 applications that need to be processed, which Mr Sinclair said will require time for staff to process. A different queue may form for any new applications lodged should volumes applied for again exceed allocation limits in the catchment.

Waikato Regional Council Chair Russ Rimmington said, “Water is precious and it should never be assumed that the Waikato River will be able to keep providing for all who want to take from it.

“This issue came to a head with Auckland last year requiring more water as a result of their dams drying up. The emergency water summit I called last July was the catalyst for lots of discussion that has made everybody take a hard look at their water needs now and into the future.

“Our burgeoning towns and cities, and agricultural and horticultural sectors, will continue to place pressure on this precious resource. I’m encouraged that coming out of our summit we have seen Watercare as well as local councils and other water users looking closely at their water use strategies, including long term water storage solutions,” Cr Rimmington said.

Background

The Waikato River Deferral Queue refers to a list of applications to take water from the Waikato River catchment awaiting processing in order of lodgement. The queue existed due to allocation pressures in the Waikato River catchment, whereby, if all applications to take water were granted, would result in the allocation limits specified in the Waikato Regional Plan being exceeded. In such circumstances, the council must process applications in catchments with allocation pressures on a ‘first-in, first-served’ basis.

The Waikato Regional Plan requires applications to be assessed against specified allocation limits at the point of take (local catchment) and key allocation points in the catchments downstream to the landward boundary of the coastal marine area. Each time an application is granted the cumulative level of allocation in the catchment changes at each relevant catchment downstream. Processing applications in order is required so as not to disadvantage earlier applications in the queue that may have to be assessed against a stricter activity status should allocation exceed limits.

The water allocation limits in the Waikato Regional Plan are set to meet the ecological needs of the river and marine environment into which it flows, iwi values articulated through Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato (Vision & Strategy for the Waikato River), and to assimilate impacts of discharges and land use in the catchment. It also ensures there’s enough water for recreation and electricity generation, while also meeting domestic, municipal, agricultural, cultural and industrial needs as far as possible.

The limits enable water to be allocated without requiring detailed instream assessment of impacts by each individual applicant. The cumulative assessment of impacts from consumptive takes has been undertaken through the robust Variation 6 policy process.

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