Water Metering Regulations Field day

An Open Field Day hosted by EPD, Water Dynamics, Siemens, Aquaspec and the HBRC is being held at the HBRC Pole Nursery in Allen Rd., Pakowhai on Friday 17 September from 2pm to provide a forum for consent holders to meet with telemetry and water meter technical experts. HBRC field and management staff will be on hand to answer questions in an informal and relaxed format. A working installation of compliant water metering together with data telemetry will be demonstrated.

Changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) will require all water resource consents to have meters fitted. At present only about 31% of water is metered according to Minister for the Environment Hon. Nick Smith.

Expected to come into force from November this year the new regulations under section 360 of the RMA will require all consents 20 litres per second and over to be metered by 2012, 10 litres per second and over by 2014, and 5 litres and over by 2016. However regional councils have authority to require more stringent requirements under the regulation. There are other requirements under the act regarding electronic record keeping and information delivery that the HBRC has indicated they will encourage consent holders to utilise.

There are approximately 2500 consents that will require metering in Hawke’s Bay and only about 800 of those are currently metered. Many of those are non-compliant in terms the HBRC installation requirements and accuracy of readings. A recent study carried out by HBRC found that 47% of meters surveyed were outside a +/- 10% variation window with the worst over reading by 61% and under reading by 33%.

Consent holders will fund the cost of purchasing and installing meters and telemetry equipment.

Locally owned and operated electrical company Electrical Process Development Ltd. Has worked closely with the HBRC, consent holders, irrigation companies and the Government to provide a telemetry solution that complies with the requirements of the regulations and delivers valuable information to consent holders automatically over the internet. In addition water meter readings can be automatically transmitted to the HBRC monitoring system.

Well known and respected local farmer, Hugh Ritchie, a board member of Irrigation NZ , Federated Farmers and the Foundation for Arable Research, Chair of Landwise HB and the Tuki Tuki Stakeholder group, and HBRC candidate for the CHB constituency will address the field day with respect to the RMA regulations and their impacts on the industry in New Zealand.