Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council
Every water take consent in Canterbury that is required to submit data is now subject to a water use data charge.
This is an annual fixed fee of $230 charged to each consent to take water over 5 litres per second, and covers the previous July-June water season.
Invoices being sent out in May 2021 cover the July 2019-June 2020 water year.
What does the charge pay for?
Our staff receive, process and store telemetry data from thousands of water use consents across the region – from Kaikoura down to the Waitaki River. This information needs to be verified, processed, stored, and assessed for compliance.
The water use data charge represents what carrying out this work costs us. Over the past few years, these costs have been absorbed through general rates. By charging directly, we’re moving to a user-pays model of water charges, which allows us to focus on ensuring water users comply with their consents.
If you’re a consent holder with a good history of compliance, then you may become eligible for a reduction in compliance monitoring, resulting in significantly reduced monitoring charges.
Keeping an eye on our water resources
Canterbury’s alpine braided rivers carry billions of litres of water from the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana to the sea, recharging underground aquifers along the way.
This water has important value as an amenity for recreational, economic and cultural use, so we need to be careful how we manage the water in our rivers and below ground.
With wide plains and proximity to fresh water sources, it’s unsurprising that almost two-thirds of the country’s irrigated land is in Canterbury, and ensuring that our water resources are sustainably managed comes at a cost.
What’s expected of us
From 2016, the Ministry for the Environment required all consents that take more than 5 litres of water per second to have an independently verified water meter installed, which provides an accurate record of water use to the regional council.
More recent regulations that took effect in September 2020 mean that over the next six years, if you have a consent to take more than 5 litres a second, you will need to ensure you have a water meter that is capable of measuring water use every 15 minutes, and this data will need to be sent to us.
We’re here to help
Invoices for the July 2019-June 2020 year will be sent between March and June 2021.
The Water Use Charges page on our website has detailed information surrounding this charge, and you can talk to your local land management advisor or call us on 0800 324 636 for more information.
