Richard McKey: Technical Specialist, Hydrology and Water Allocation 7 years in hydrology, experience of field hydrology, flood forecast modelling, low flow and technical assessments

Development of a compliance monitoring tool Some background information, the necessity of compliance Development of the compliance tool Implementation, operation and future developments

Waikato Region The Waikato is the fourth largest region in New Zealand. In 2006, approximately 400,000 people lived in the Waikato region. The longest river in New Zealand (the Waikato River) The largest lake (Lake Taupo) Internationally significant wetlands The country’s most important geothermal systems Extensive native and exotic forests, and Tongariro National Park.

Water, the problem of managing it A large amount of the Waikato region is already over allocated, due to grand parenting of consent conditions and changes in allocation limits. Since this map was produced the area in the upper Waikato around Taupo has also been fully or over allocated.

Water, the problem of managing it  Application and issue of a resource consent  How Waikato Regional Council's rules work The ‘Councils’ Regional Plan and Regional Coastal Plan regulate activities that may impact on the soil, air, water and coastal resources. The plans have a range of ‘permitted activity’ rules. These rules allow specific activities that, if well managed, should have little (if any) effects on people or the environment. Permitted activity rules require you to meet a range of conditions.

Water, the problem of managing it  You will need a resource consent if: the activity is not specifically addressed in the plan, or you cannot meet the conditions of the relevant permitted activity rule allowing the taking or discharge of water  Conditions Resource consents include conditions to protect the environment. Consented activities are monitored to make sure that the conditions are being met. The way “conditions” are written, has an impact on the monitoring process, ease of enforcement or not.

Water, the problem of managing it Staying within the bounds of the consent Examples: Take and use water from the Walmsley Stream for domestic and municipal water supply purposes - On and following the 25 th day of the eleventh month after the third anniversary of the commencement date of this consent, when a flow of 1.6 cubic metres per second or less, is recorded within the Ohinemuri River at the Waikato Regional Council’s recorder site at Karangahake, the maximum volume of water taken under this consent shall not exceed 75 cubic metres in any 24 hour period. Take up to 2300 cubic metres per day of water from Mangawhero Stream for pasture irrigation - This consent shall not be exercised at any time on days when: There is a king tide event in the Firth of Thames, that being equal to or greater than 3.4 metres, as measured at Auckland, and - Flows in the Waihou River are cumecs or below, or - When the average turbidity in the Waihou River as measured at the Peka Peka intake exceeds 70 ntu’s for the previous 12.5 hours. - Nephelometric Turbidity Units

Driving influences behind compliance Smarter water use generally can help reduce pressure on water resources. This can involve a whole raft of water conservation measures ranging, for example, from in the home use through to industry and councils being more efficient and reducing water use. The ability to transfer water use rights to others is another way of managing demand, and this is provided for under Variation 6. In some places users also have the ability to “harvest” water at times of peak river flows (such as in winter) and store it for future use. Waikato Regional Council water allocation plan variation 6

Compliance tool Issue, how was compliance being done? - Manual process involving downloading data from the environmental database and plotting in Excel, very laborious task! - Complexity of the compliance conditions. - There are sites with water take records listed in Wiski; going through every site manually would take a long time!

Compliance tool Aims of the compliance tool - Provide a tool that can quickly and effectively assess compliance of consented water use takes - Over allocation; making more efficient use of what water remains - Understanding how much water is being used at any one time? - Focus energy for those doing the monitoring process - Improve the accuracy of the data being collected

Compliance as a process Breaking compliance down into three processes First process, acquiring and storing water use data: Wiski (Water Information System Kisters) Second process, acquiring the limits and restrictions from water take consents: IRIS (Integrated Regional Information System) Third process, combining the water take records with the limits and restrictions imposed on taking that water

Data from telemetry Telemetered water abstraction data can be sent to the ‘Council’ in a variety of formats!

Manual records Data from manual records can also be sent in a variety of formats!

Data streams used in the compliance tool Parameter and time series used in the reports. - Parameter VolWU: parameter under which all volume water take data is stored. Data entry via telemetry and manual entry. - Time series 15.Cmd.P Continuously monitored water take data, that has been standardised to a15 minute rasta. - Time series Day.Total Daily total of water take - Time series MaximumRate - Time series MaximumDailyQuantity - Time series MaximumAnnualQuantity - Parameter Flow: Parameter under which flow rate data supplied by the consent holder is stored. Data is via telemetry only. - Time series Cmd.P - Parameter Hours: Parameter under which the pumped hours are stored. Data is via manual entry only. - Time series Cmd.P

Take consent limits in IRIS and transfer to Wiski

Setting up limits in IRIS using parameters Set the months the condition applies to Choose the units the parameter is to be measured in Enter the value for the limit Select what type the parameter is The consent condition is listed in the parameter, along with the consent number

Exporting the limits to Wiski External Id, the link between IRIS and Wiski Where should the data link to? Which parameter should the link point to? Condition number under which the data to be linked lives

Compliance tool Set the date you want to run the report for. Time series used in the report. Set the report number. Set the location where the report is to be saved

Compliance tool

Multiple databases accessed to combine information into one report The limit lines in the report are dynamic they take into account seasonal changes in limits. Report currently generated as a PDF, can be easily converted to Crystal report Generating the report individually and as a bulk process

The future of compliance Dynamic compliance, changing of consent limits with environmental low flow restrictions Identify which consent holders are making full use of their consented limits, which are not Build up a bigger picture of water use throughout the Waikato region, in line with MFE data request Improve the policies used to manage water Alarming of consents Getting the data onto the web, self enforcing process Water trading

Thankyou for your time Questions?