RMA Flashcards
water
means water in all its physical forms whether flowing or not and whether over or under the ground:
- includes fresh water, coastal water, and geothermal water
- does not include water in any form while in any pipe, tank,
or cistern
water body
means fresh water or geothermal water in a
river, lake, stream, pond, wetland, or aquifer, or any part
thereof, that is not located within the coastal marine area
wetland
includes permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water, and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals that are adapted to wet conditions
river
means a continually or intermittently flowing body of fresh water; and includes a stream and modified watercourse; but does not include any artificial watercourse (including an irrigation canal, water supply race, canal for the supply of water for electricity power generation, and farm
drainage canal
contaminant
includes any substance (including gases, odorous compounds, liquids, solids, and micro organisms) or energy (excluding noise) or heat, that either by itself or in combination with the same, similar, or other substances, energy, or heat
- when discharged into water, changes or is likely to change the physical, chemical, or
biological condition of water; or
- b) when discharged onto or into land or into air, changes or is likely to change the physical, chemical, or biological condition of the land or air onto or into which it is discharged
Water Conservation Orders
- Aim to recognise the outstanding amenity or intrinsic values that
water provides, in either a natural or modified state. - Orders may be applied over rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, or aquifers, and can cover freshwater or geothermal water.
- If granted, can restrict or prohibit water ‘takes’, discharges and other uses of the water.
- Can be used to preserve natural state or protect characteristics such
as: - the water body’s value as a habitat or fishery
- its wild and scenic nature
- its value for recreational, historic, spiritural, cultural or scenic purposes
- A water body may also hold particular significance for Māori
National Environmental Standard for Sources of Human Drinking Water 2007
Prevents consents that might result in contaminated drinking water
National Policy Statement on
Freshwater Management 2014
Ensuring that no decision will likely result in future over allocation including
managing freshwater so that aggregates of all amounts of freshwater in a Freshwater
Management Unit (FMU) that are authorised to be taken, used, dammed or diverted do not over allocate the water in the FMU.
-> has to be integrated into the regional plan
Resource Management
(Measurement and Reporting of Water Takes) Regulations 2010
Takes must be measured continuously, preferably with
datalogger , lodged annually
with regional council. Accuracy of measuring must be independently verified ervery 5 years.
- 5 litres/second or more, but less than 10 litres/second: from 10 November 2016
Does not include takes for domestic or stock water, or from reticulated systems, or
permitted takes ( ie where no resource consent required).
Plan contains
- Objectives
- Policies
- Rules - these are critical, but must have a policy that they are designed to achieve
- Methods
- NB rules usually apply to defined zones shown on maps
- > plan defines activities:
- on land you can do what you want unless it contravenes a rule in a plan
- with water you can’t do anything unless rule permits it
RMA Plans
give effect to policies and RMA
- Proposed plan notified for public submission
- Public submissions summary released
- Further submissions from public
- Hearing makes recommendation
- Council decision
- Plan notified
- Appeals to Environment Court
Resource consents
- Application (if needed see plans for type)
- Assessment by council of scale and significance of effects
- Public (limited) notification if decided sufficient impact
- Public submissions (in writing)
- Hearing (probably)
- Council (or Hearing Commissioner) decision
- Appeals to the Environment Court
- Appeals to High Court etc (on points of law
Local Gouvernment Act
- LGA plans are not RMA plans
- LGA plans (annual plan, long term plan) say what money will be spent on
- Projects that are proposed by a local council through the LGA process will still need to get resource consent through the RMA - they are treated the same as anyone else
