A Word from the Mayor
This month Hurunui District Council (HDC) made six submissions to central government’s new drinking water regulator Taumata Arowai, on a suite of proposed regulatory documents by the regulator that specify compliance requirements for registered water suppliers.
HDC operates eighteen separate water supply networks and has one registered drinking water tanker, which will all require compliance with the new set of rules.
In HDC’s capacity as a Drinking Water Supplier and as a voice for its communities, Council has significant interest in ensuring that the rules are fit for purpose and practical, whilst also providing a robust regulatory framework that ensures communities are provided with safe water.
What some of you may not realise is that the new regulatory regime has been designed to reach further into the delivery of safe water than was previously covered. The type of water supplies that are now regulated is outlined in the Water Services Act, with the proposed regulatory documents providing the nuts and bolts detail of the rules that will be applied to each category of supply.
If your drinking water is provided by anything other than a networked Council supply, you need to check carefully whether the new rules will apply to you or not.
If you have your own water source (e.g. a bore) and that water source is used to provide drinking water to buildings on site other than just to one domestic dwelling (either on your property or across property boundaries), then you meet the definition of a ‘drinking water supplier’ and there will be compliance requirements for you to meet. The old rules that limited the definition of ‘drinking water supplier’ to supplies that was serving 25 people for at least 60 days of the year are no longer applicable. Therefore, water supply arrangements such as private water supplies to small subdivisions, small non-council community water supplies, non-residential properties with their own water source or properties with their own water source supplying multiple buildings should all check out the new rules carefully.
Council is fully aware of the varying arrangements for water supply, delivery, ownership and use throughout the District. Sometimes these arrangements can be complex, with historical agreements in place for the sharing of and access to water sources. HDC is fully aware of the impact these new regulatory requirements may have on hundreds of property owners in the District.
Council’s submissions aim to ensure that cost, scale, risk and rural perspectives are all considered, as Taumata Arowai moves to finalise the compliance rules that will apply.
Taumata Arowai’s website provides more information on the new regulatory regime: (www.taumataarowai.govt.nz).