Consent conditions vs Government Metering Regulations

Resource Consent Conditions

All Marlborough water permits have conditions that have to be met before water can be taken.

Conditions that need to be met will include how water taken is to be measured, the type of record of water take that must be kept and how and when that record must be sent to Council.

There may be other conditions specific to your situation. Please read your resource consent carefully and ensure all conditions are met before water is taken.

If you need help interpreting your consent conditions or need a copy of your consent conditions, please contact Council for assistance.

Finding your consent conditions using our property files online service

To find the details of your resource consent you can search Council's Property Files Online. Just follow the below link and search via the U' number of your resource consent, e.g. UXXXXXX.

Go to Property Files Online

National Regulations on Water Take Measuring and Reporting

The national regulations on the measuring and reporting of water takes came into effect in November 2010. Marlborough District Council must implement and monitor these regulations. The regulations set bottom line requirements for the installation, maintenance, recording and reporting of water take information to Council.

The bottom line requirements of the regulations require consented takes of greater than 5 litres per second to:

Install a suitable measuring device that is sealed and tamper proof and is capable of a pulse output.
For full pipe systems, ensure measuring is accurate to within +/- 5 % of the actual volume taken and+/- 10 % for other takes.
Verification of meter accuracy must be undertaken by qualified persons initially and then every five years.
Continuously measure water take, including zero readings and collate records on a daily basis (a daily reading).
Report the information to Council annually in a form suitable for electronic storage.

Consented takes of less than 5 litres per second are not covered by the national regulations, although Council is bringing all permits in line with the regulations as they come up for renewal.

The new water metering regulations do not remove the need to comply with your current permit conditions.

See new water metering regulations

Who the regulations apply to

The regulations do not apply to you if you:

Do not require a resource consent to take water, ie; for domestic water takes of less than 5 m/day or stock drinking water
Hold a permit for a water take of less than five litres per second

If you hold a resource consent (water permit) to take freshwater at a rate of five litres per second or more, then the regulation will apply to you.

What you need to do

If the regulations apply to you, you must install an accurate water measuring device (meter) and have this meter verified after installation and then every five years. It must be:

Suitable for the quality of the water it is measuring (eg; it is suitable for the sediment content of your water)
Sealed and tamper-proof
Installed where your water is taken from, unless written approval has been given to site it elsewhere
Accurate to within plus or minus five per cent for water taken by a full (pressurised) pipe, or plus or minus 10 per cent for water taken by open channels or partially full pipes
Verified by a qualified person
Able to provide data electronically (ie; be able to have a data logger fitted to it)

When keeping records, you must:

Take continuous measurements
Keep daily records (or weekly, by arrangement) of cubic metres taken. If no water is taken, you must record this as 0
Keep your records in an auditable form.

These are national requirements; individual resource consents may also include other measuring or reporting requirements as set by Marlborough District Council at the time the consent is granted.

Go to the Resource Management (Measurement and Reporting of Water Takes) Regulations 2010 page