Application CRC185066 & CRC185065 By Otematata Golf Club and Waitaki District Council for a water permit to take and use water Section 42A Officer’s Report – Katherine Huggins Date: 4/04/2018 INTRODUCTION 1. Otematata Golf Club (the applicant) has applied for a resource consent to partially transfer surface water site to site from Waitaki District Council consent CRC011743.1 to take and use surface water from SWAP CA16/0016 for the purposes of irrigating a golf course. 2. Hugh Cameron of the Otematata Golf Club has prepared the AEE on behalf of the applicant. 3. The applicant currently takes water from the Waitaki District Council community supply take (CRC011743.1) to irrigate the golf course. However, for ease the applicant would like their own abstraction point closer to the golf course. Therefore, a part site to site transfer has been applied for. 4. A site visit was not undertaken during the processing of this resource consent. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ACTIVITY 5. Water Permit (s14) to partially transfer CRC011743.1 from site to site - to take and use water CRC185066 – Otematata Golf Club 6. In summary, the applicant proposes to: a. Take and use water at 10 litres per second and 30,000 cubic metres from SWAP CA16/0016 for the irrigation of 25.7 ha of the golf course. b. Map reference NZTM2000:1377807 mE 5057471 mN 7. The surface water take is from Lake Aviemore and will be included within the Tourism and Recreational Facilities annual allocation. CRC185065 – Waitaki District Council 8. In summary, the applicant proposes to: a. Transfer 30,000 cubic metres of water to the Otematata Golf Course from consent CRC011743.1 from map reference NZTM2000:1377742 mE 5055317 mN, SWAP H40/0015. b. The volume to remain for the existing take shall not exceed a volume of 4,380 cubic metres per day, 30,660 cubic metres per week, and 570,000 cubic metres per annum s42A report version September 2015 a. The surface water take is from Otematata River and is include within the town and Community water supplies annual allocation. 9. For the purpose of this report I will consider only the effects of CRC185066 – the new abstraction for Otematata Golf Course as I consider the surrendering of 30,000 from CRC011743.1 to have no adverse effects on the environment. LEGAL AND PLANNING MATTERS The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) 10. Section 136 states that: (1) A holder of a water permit granted other than for damming or diverting water may transfer the whole or any part of the holder’s interest in the permit— (a) to any owner or occupier of the site in respect of which the permit is granted; or (b) to another person on another site, or to another site, if both sites are in the same catchment (either upstream or downstream), aquifer, or geothermal field, and the transfer— (i) is expressly allowed by a regional plan; or (ii) has been approved by the consent authority that granted the permit on an application under subsection (4). 11. Section 14 states that: (1) No person may take, use, dam, or divert any— (a) Water (other than open coastal water); or unless the taking, use, damming, or diversion is allowed by subsection (3). (3) A person is not prohibited by subsection (1) from taking, using, damming, or diverting any water, heat, or energy if— (a) The taking, use, damming, or diversion is expressly allowed by a rule in a regional plan [and in any relevant proposed regional plan] or a resource consent; or (b) In the case of fresh water, the water, heat, or energy is required to be taken or used for— (i) An individual's reasonable domestic needs; or (ii) The reasonable needs of an individual's animals for drinking water,— and the taking or use does not, or is not likely to, have an adverse effect on the environment; or… (e) The water is required to be taken or used for fire-fighting purposes. 12. Therefore, unless expressly allowed by a rule in a regional plan a resource consent is required Regional Plans Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan (WCWARP) 13. The part transfer of surface water site to site within the Waitaki Catchment is assessed against the rules set out in the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan. 14. Rule 8 of the WCWARP is the applicable rule on the transfer of resource consents. Rule 8 states: Consent Number:CRC185065 and CRC185066 Page 2 of 27 Consent Planner: Katherine Huggins (1) No person shall transfer a consent to take or use water so that the use that is made of the water in exercise of the consent is changed. (2) No person shall transfer the location at which a consent to take water is exercised to any water body to which either Rule 4 or Rule 5 applies. (3) No person shall transfer the location at which a consent to take or use water is exercised unless the new location is downstream along the route the water would flow between the existing location and the sea. (4A) No person who holds a consent subject to Rule 2(4) shall transfer that consent to another person on another site, or to another site, unless that site is already the subject of a Schedule 3 consent to take or use water. (4) No person shall transfer the location at which a consent to take or use water is exercised from one part of the catchment to another, except in accordance with Rule 21, Rule 21A, Rule 22 or Rule 23. 15. The proposal cannot comply with condition (3) as the new location is upstream of the existing location. The transfer of water is from one part of the catchment to another; however, this meets Rule 21A and is therefore, a restricted discretionary activity. 16. The exercise of discretion under this rule is restricted to the following matters: a. the effect of the transfer on the exercise of any other consent to take, use, dam or divert water; b. the method for preventing fish from entering the water intake; c. the technical efficiency of the exercise of the consent; d. the effect on flow in the immediate vicinity of the new location, and the need for and provision of any additional restriction to prevent that flow from reducing to zero; e. the consent-holders' responsibility for monitoring, including the timely provision of information to the Canterbury Regional Council; f. the location and method of water-measuring devices; and g. the need for backflow prevention. ASSESSMENT OF POTENTIALLY AFFECTED PARTIES 17. The applicant did not carry out any consultation as they did not identify any potentially adversely affected parties. I agree that no persons are adversely affected by this proposal. 18. Canterbury Regional Council informed the following interested parties of the application. No response was received from the Rūnanga a. Fish and Game b. Forest and Bird c. The Department of Conservation d. Waitaki District Council e. Moeraki Rūnanga Consent Number:CRC185065 and CRC185066 Page 3 of 27 Consent Planner: Katherine Huggins f. Te Rūnanga o Ngai Tahu 19. A response was received from the Rūnanga which is discussed below. DESCRIPTION OF THE AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT 20. The applicant is taking water from SWAP CA16/0016 which is located adjacent to Lake Aviemore. 21. Lake Aviemore has a minimum lake level of 265.5 metres above mean sea level. Table 5 of the WCWARP has set 9,500,000 cubic metres for Tourism and recreational facilities upstream of the Waitaki Dam but not upstream the outlets of the glacial lakes. 22. Currently, only 5,405,056 cubic metres has been allocated for Tourism and Recreational facilities leaving 4,094,944 available for allocation. The granting of an additional 30,000 cubic metres per year will not result in the exceedance of the Tourism and Recreational facilities limits. 23. Using the ECan GIS database, I have identified the following relevant features related to the site: a. Lake Aviemore and the adjacent land (golf course) is classified as a site of special wildlife significance, land of national significance, native bird habitat, recreational values, wetland of representative importance. b. There are wetland areas approximately 600 metres upstream of the proposed abstraction point. These have been classified as Otematata made- man ponds. c. There is one surface water abstractor within 1 km of the site, downstream from the abstraction point; 24. The site is located within the takiwā of Moeraki Rūnanga and is not within or close to a silent file, statutory acknowledgement area, or Rūnanga sensitive area. ASSESSMENT OF ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL EFFECTS 25. The proposal is a restricted discretionary activity therefore I have only considered matters that the CRC has discretion over. These are listed below: a. the effect of the transfer on the exercise of any other consent to take, use, dam or divert water; b. the method for preventing fish from entering the water intake; c. the technical efficiency of the exercise of the consent; d. the effect on flow in the immediate vicinity of the new location, and the need for and provision of any additional restriction to prevent that flow from reducing to zero; e. the consent-holders' responsibility for monitoring, including the timely provision of information to the Canterbury Regional Council; f. the location and method of water-measuring devices; and g. the need for backflow prevention. Consent Number:CRC185065 and CRC185066 Page 4 of 27 Consent Planner: Katherine Huggins 26. The below headings should take into account the matters of discretion as listed above. Potential cumulative effects on water quantity 27.