Water consent holders must act now to meet government regulations

Water consent holders with a take of 20 l/sec or more have until 30 June to register with an approved water metering service supplier to ensure they meet government installation deadlines.

Consent holders were advised of the 30 June deadline in a letter from Environment Canterbury’s Ashburton-based water metering team last month.

Under the Government’s National Regulations and Reporting Water Takes consent holders with takes of 20 l/sec or more need to install water measuring devices and systems for reporting water use by 10 November 2012.

Environment Canterbury Extension Services Manager Judith Earl-Goulet said consent holders need to register with a service provider now to ensure they comply with the regulations.

“The government’s national regulations are here to stay and there will be consequences for those who do not comply by the deadline in November. There is a huge job to do to get the outstanding installations done in time.

“We want to work with consent holders, and to enable this, we need them to demonstrate intent to have a water measuring system installed with an approved service provider by 30 June,” she said.

In New Zealand there are around 12,000 consents that require water measuring devices to be installed. Approximately 42 per cent of these are in Canterbury – the highest regional proportion in New Zealand.

“Industry service providers have advised us they are unlikely to have the capacity to service the volume of installations required if consent holders delay taking action.

“A last-minute rush could result in a shortage of equipment and labour and require installers to contract out services and these costs could be passed on to farmers.

“It is important for consent holders to act now to ensure they are fully compliant with the regulations,” she said.

Environment Canterbury has worked with Irrigation NZ, industry suppliers and farmer representatives to establish standards for the installation and verification of water measuring devices. There are around 40 companies in Canterbury which have been assessed and are authorised to provide water measuring services.

Judith Earl-Goulet said there are obvious advantages to installing water measuring devices.

“Measuring water use provides consent holders with the information they need to ensure they use water efficiently and optimise production, comply with resource consent conditions, as well as reducing irrigation and pumping costs.

“Many farmers have already being enjoying the benefits of having the information required to ensure you are getting the best use out of their resource. Added telemetry devices have also become fundamental to how many farmers manage their farm – saving them time, money and energy.

“The information relating to actual water use will helps Environment Canterbury with the planning, allocation and management of the region’s ground and surface water,” she said.

All consent holders should refer to their resource consent/s and review their consent conditions to determine how the regulations apply to them.

The deadlines for installing water measuring systems are:

Date Take size
10 November 2012 20 l/sec or more
10 November 2014 Between 10 l/sec and less than 20 l/sec
10 November 2016 Between 5 l/sec and less than 10 l/sec

Individual consent conditions can be viewed online at: http://ecan.govt.nz/services/online-services/Pages/consent-search.aspx

If consent holders do not have a copy of their consent or do not know their consent number they should call Customer Services on 03 353-9007 or 0800 324-636.

More information about water measuring services, approved installation companies and the implementation of the National Regulations can be found at:

http://ecan.govt.nz/watermetering

http://www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/central/measuring-reporting-water-takes.html