An application for Auckland to take millions more litres of water a day from Waikato River is now open for public submissions.
Photo: 123rf
Auckland Council water company Watercare has applied to the Environmental Protection Authority to take an extra 150 million litres of water a day from Waikato River.
Currently, Watercare takes 175m litres from the river daily.
In 2013, Watercare applied to Waikato Regional Council to pump away an additional 200m litres, but the application has now been reduced to 150m.
Watercare plans to limit the total take from the river to 300m litres a day.
In June last year, Environment Minister David Parker decided future sources of drinking water for Auckland were a matter of "national significance" and referred the application to a Board of Inquiry.
After a long drought, Auckland has faced a water crisis. Restrictions remain on water use, due to low levels in storage lakes.
Submissions on the application to take water can be made to the Environmental Protection Authority until 26 March. These will be sent to the Board of Inquiry to inform its decision.