Royalties floated for water consents

The council wants to ensure the longevity of the water supply.

Any companies wanting new consents to draw water from the Heretaunga aquifer for water bottling that will end up overseas could be hit with a royalty charge.

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council says it's keen to get the conversation started with central government on how a royalty charge could work.

A hui-a-hapu on water called by Ngti Kahungunu and held at the Heretaunga Taiwhenua highlighted water bottling consents as a major local issue. Following this hui, HBRC councillor Peter Beaven led a number of motions one of which was to explore legislation that would enable a royalty charge on water extraction.

"Can they [HBRC] affectively earn some income from that water coming out of the ground, at the moment, there is no legal mechanism in place but they want to open up that conversation," says Iain Maxwell, HBRC Resource Management Group Manager.

In a letter penned to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, the Takitimu District Mori Council has called the amount of water that is being extracted for export criminal.

"It is theft, capital opportunism, environmental vandalism which will result in environmental suicide," says chairman of the Takitimu Council Des Ratima.

While Ratima does see some merit in imposing a royalty charge he says that it "screams of ownership" and he favours a solution that brings economic development where Mori are engaged in the governance and the management.

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council has issued nine different consents for the purposes of water bottling, two exclusively for bottling water, the remainder a mix of irrigation, water bottling operations and wet industrial activities.

The consents will see millions of cubic metres of water extracted from the Heretaunga aquifer, bottled and sent offshore over the coming decades.

"The aquifer defines who we are in Kahungunu, our whole existence is defined by the aquifer being in good health and the aquifer being available for its people, the aquifer being a priority of care," says Ratima.

HBRC councillor Peter Beaven also led a motion asking staff to constrain the issuing of any further water take consents, as well as a motion where any future water consents could also be given a "B" status.

This means, once it is determined how much water is available for consenting, the regional council has the power to re-adjust the water take or even revoke the consent, if the aquifer is put under pressure because of over allocation.

"What we need to do is to explore whether we can legally do that because we don't want to do something that we can't," explains MacDonald.

He says that under the Resource Management Act (RMA) the council's' hands are tied. If the consent process has been followed and it complies with the RMA, they can approve it. However maintaining the health of the aquifer is a top priority for the regional council.