Wairarapa water suppliers seek bill changes

Tighter regulation of drinking water standards proposed in a bill in front of Parliament have left Wairarapa's smaller water networks owners calling for changes to the planned laws.

The Water Services Bill is at the select committee stage, and the opportunity to submit opinions closed this week.

The bill is part of the Government's broader Three Waters Reform programme to tackle acute infrastructure problems.

These problems included incidents such as the 2016 Havelock North fatal campylobacter outbreak and the 2019 E. coli scares in Martinborough.

Close to 900 people and organisations put their opinions to the committee.

Councils, currently, make up the vast majority of water suppliers.

But there are hundreds of small networks across New Zealand. Current guidelines consider them as networks supplying 500 people or fewer.

These tend to include farm stations and marae.

The owners and representatives on these networks want to see changes to the proposed new laws that will tighten monitoring of drinking water.

When presenting the bill to Parliament, local government minister Nanaia Mahuta said the bill would implement the government's decision to "comprehensively reform the drinking water regulatory system, with targeted reforms to improve the regulation and performance of wastewater and stormwater networks".

Mahuta said, "water infrastructure has been left to languish for far too long".

But opponents say more stringent testing of drinking water needs work, and costs are out of reach of many smaller water networks, should the bill pass.

Compliances officer numbers would be bulked up, and the new patrol would be given stronger powers through the new water authority, Taumata Arowai.

They would act on concerns to public health, such as those raised in Havelock North and Martinborough.

Infringement notices and prosecutions could be dealt out.

According to the legislation, these include marae, rural schools, farm stations (that provide for more than one dwelling on their property).

It excludes domestic self-suppliers.

Wairarapa's smaller networks include farm stations and marae.

At least two local marae stated their opposition to the bill in its current form.

A submission from Mōtūwairaka marae at Riversdale Beach said the bill breached Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Its submission recommends "marae and papa kainga [small Māori network supplies] are removed from the proposed legislation as this has a direct interference with our rangatiratanga ".

The committee of Ngāi Tūmapūhia-ā-Rangi Māori Marae, near Masterton, said it "passionately oppose and strongly object to the proposed legislation".

"We recommend marae and papa kainga are removed from this legislation as it has a direct interference with our tino rangatiratanga [normally translated to mean "sovereign independence"].

"We recommend drinking water management would include "source protection", i.e. safeguarding the quality and quantity of freshwater with greater limits and controls on land use to recognise human health impacts including drinking water."

Castlepoint Station owner Anders Crofoot said he was supportive of the overall intent of the bill, but in its current state, it would be "likely to capture a quite a few small water supplies that have never had any issues and subject them to onerous rules that may well be quite difficult to comply with".

The station, a large scale sheep and beef farm with separate water supply systems, also supplies roof water for a building for public overnight accommodation, a reticulated system supplied from one spring to four dwellings, a woolshed and stock water, and another system supplied from five springs to five dwellings, a holiday park, and stock water.

"It is in our self-interest to maintain good quality water adding regulation this sort of small scheme will only add cost in terms of time and money and is highly unlikely to improve anything," Crofoot said.

"Supplies servicing populations [of less than] 50 should be exempted from the requirements to have compliant Water Safety Plan, installing source treatment systems and record keeping.

"Monitoring of a reticulated system should not be required only at the source. It should be allowed at other appropriate points, such as a reservoir tank."

Larger operators in Wairarapa also sent opinions.

Masterton District [MDC] and Greater Wellington Regional [GWRC] Councils were among local councils to submit suggestions.

MDC chief executive Kath Ross said the council "strongly supported the bill"

But her submission asked the committee to consider whether penalties for all offences "are proportionate in all cases to the levels of risk".

Ross also said the committee needed to "satisfies itself that sufficient resources [including funding] exist within the system for the reporting and investigation of alleged [or] actual offences, drawing potentially on lessons learnt under the Health and Safety and Building regimes."

Daran Ponter, Greater Wellington Regional Council chair, said his authority "applauds the bill giving effect to Te Mana o Te Wai - recognising that protecting the health of freshwater protects the health and well-being of the wider environment across the water cycle."

However, Ponter said GWRC was concerned that "the scope for greater skills, capacity, capability and competencies highlighted in the bill is unachievable in the short-to-medium term".

He also said the bill should take account of his council's "unique statutory role as a bulk water supplier".

By an earlier Act of Parliament, GWRC can take water and carry out works within its region.

Parliament's health committee, chaired by Labour List MP Liz Craig, debates the bill in a private session at its next meeting on Wednesday [March 10].

Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.