IrrigationNZ is pleased to see a sensible reaction from the Government to the recent interpretation of the Resource Management Act (RMA) that significantly impacted the ability of regional and district councils to manage human and economic activity.

The Government announced earlier today that they will be looking to clarify section 107 of the RMA as part of their wider review of immediate improvements to the Act.

The clarification to the discharge consenting provisions in the RMA provides certainty for all types of discharges to water, including agricultural, horticultural, industrial, waste, and stormwater discharges. It also supports councils in managing discharge consents to minimise their impact over the duration of the consent.

The recent legal interpretations of the RMA made it difficult for any discharge consent to be granted where a receiving environment was in a degraded state, even where the consent was reducing its impact over time through mitigation and environmental improvements. This particularly impacts cities and districts in gaining waste and stormwater consents, as the receiving environments near human activity are often more degraded than those in remote areas. This also had the potential to significantly impact on the growing of fresh fruit and vegetables as they also tend to be closer to towns and cities (due to labour, transport routes, and consumption).

The decision to review section 107 is a sensible one and it does not give licence for blanket discharge or reductions in environmental protections put in place by the last labour government, who themselves had a generational approach to improvements and sought to support reductions over time.

The clarification will relieve councils of the significant burden of adjusting to these interpretations, avoiding a huge increase in compliance and reviews. This is also a win for ratepayers, especially as compliance costs rise and rates continue to climb.

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