Aquifer capacity studies - Protection or prevention

The proposed National Environmental Standard (NES) on Ecological Flows and Water Levels by the Ministry for the Environment, March 2008 suggests environmental flows be applied to all aquifers, where no environmental flow exists through a regional plan. This guidance is intended to avoid over-allocation of groundwater. It means, however, that when a catchment reaches its allocation limit, no more applications to take and use groundwater will be granted; unless the applicant is able to provide sufficient evidence that additional groundwater exists.

This NES is an important step in managing New Zealand’s water resources and has been adopted by a number of regional councils. In some cases, resource consents to take and use groundwater will not be processed until an aquifer capacity study/through-flow analysis has been completed.

There are minimum requirements to undertake a through-flow analysis and the more information available, the more reliable the through-flow analysis. However, this data is not collected consistently by regional councils, making it very difficult to undertake an aquifer capacity study with confidence.

This paper suggests and recommends improvement of the application and reliability of these studies so that the consenting processes are expedited and our groundwater resource is better monitored and managed.