Regional Water Plan
Water quality and quantity, groundwater and wetlands are issues that Southlanders are interested in. The purpose of this Plan is to promote the sustainable management of Southland's rivers, lakes, groundwater, surface water, and wetland resources.
The plan is aimed at enabling the use and development of fresh water where this can be undertaken in a sustainable way, providing a framework for activities, such as discharges to water, taking and using water, and structures and bed disturbance activities in river beds.
Download the Regional Water Plan.
Note: We're currently in the process of combining provisions from the Transitional Regional Plan, Regional Effluent Land Application Plan and Regional Water Plan into one document. The proposed Southland Water and Land Plan introduces new methods to manage activities that we know adversely affect the quality of Southland's freshwater. Relevant objectives, policies and rules of the proposed Plan, as well as those in the existing Regional Water Plan, must be considered in all resource consent applications lodged with Environment Southland.
Associated documents
- Code of Practice for Design and Construction of Agricultural Effluent Ponds - December 2009 (PDF, 2.8MB)
- Guide - Stormwater Discharges Information Guide - January 2013 (PDF, 518.5KB)
- Policy - Agricultural Effluent Pond Rule and Policy (PDF, 77.4KB)
- Report - Methods for Setting Water Quantity Conditions - June 2014 (PDF, 1.3MB)
