18 Sep 2014

Water body calls for RMA review

7:16 am on 18 September 2014

It is time to review the Resource Management Act and separate its planning and environmental protection functions, national water industry body Water New Zealand says.

President Steve Couper has told the annual water conference in Hamilton the new National Policy for Fresh Water Management is a step in the right direction - although it is 20 years overdue.

Mr Couper said for the first time, there is a national objectives framework and some bottom lines set for managing water.

However, he said there would not be consistent decision-making under the RMA because regulators are obliged to consider effects in isolation, rather than across a catchment, or nationally.

"My suggestion is that it should revert back to planning legislation and environmental legislation. If you look at the way the Act's set up, its very litigious.

"Whenever you want to do anything, you have to apply for a new consent and we're talking a lot of the time about public infrastructure that's been in place for decades and has to remain in place for decades to come," he said.

"Yet local authorities are spending upwards of a million bucks, for example, for a small waste water plant just to renew resource consents, and having to do that because they're having to engage a lot of scientists and lawyers and planners, etcetera, to prove that they're able to mitigate their effects."

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs