OPERATIVE: This plan promotes the sustainable management of rivers, lakes and hydraulically connected groundwater, and river and lake beds in the Waimakariri River Catchment; to maintain and enhance the environment; and to achieve integrated management of these resources.
The Transitional Regional Plan permitted activity rules no longer have effect in the Waimakariri catchment and have been replaced by NRRP permitted activity rules. See the file “Correction of Minor Errors” under Read the Plan.
Amendments to NRRP Chapter 4 Water Quality & Waimakariri River Regional Plan relating to the Styx River Catchment
Pursuant to Section 27 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act, 2011 (CER Act), the Minister has used his powers to amend the regional plan that applies to the Styx River/Puharakekenui catchment. This makes the Styx River catchment subject to the water quality rules in the Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan 2011 (NRRP). Water quality in the Styx River catchment had previously been managed under the Waimakariri River Regional Plan 2004. The NRRP provides the most up to date policies and rules regarding stormwater, and includes a requirement to develop stormwater management plans for the catchment. Having a single regional plan apply to the whole north east Christchurch area will also simplify the planning and consenting process, to facilitate the delivery of much needed housing and associated infrastructure for the Christchurch recovery.
Waimakariri River Regional Plan amendments (12 kB)
The Natural Resources Regional Plan amendments - Chapter 4 Water Quality (13 kB)
Appendix 1 Amendments to NRRP Chapter 4 Table WQL8 Index of rules (29 kB)
Appendix 2 Amendments to rules in Chapter 4 of the Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan (538 kB)
Christchurch Map Series A-C02 (1.5 MB)
Christchurch Map Series A-C05 (2.9 MB)
Christchurch Map Series A-C06 (987 kB)
Public Notice: Styx River Catchment
Read the plan
Waimakariri River Regional Plan Incorporating Plan Change 1 (5.28 MB)
Or, due to large file size of the whole Plan, you can download the Plan as several smaller files:
In particular, the Plan addresses the issues of:
- Competition for the use of water in the Waimakariri River, its tributaries and hydraulically connected groundwater
- The use of water from the Waimakariri River to augment flows in the Cust River to safeguard its life supporting capacity
- Point and non-point source discharges of contaminants to water bodies in the Waimakariri River Catchment
- Land uses or activities in the beds of rivers and lakes in the Waimakariri River Catchment.
Correction of minor errors in the Operative Waimakariri River Regional Plan
The Resource Management Act, Schedule 1 Clause 20A, allows Councils to amend an operative plan to correct minor errors. Clause 20A states:
“A local authority may amend, without using the process in this Schedule, an operative policy statement or plan to correct any minor errors”
The table below identifies where corrections of minor errors have occurred in the operative Waimakariri River Regional Plan. These have been approved under delegated authority and took effect from the date they were authorised, as shown in the right hand column.
| WRRP provision |
Page number |
Amendment made to correct minor error |
Summary of reason for amendment |
Date authorised |
| Many provisions – see attachment |
|
See attachment: Minor change required to WRRP to correct errors (1.83 MB) |
The Waimakariri River Regional Plan (WRRP) does not contain permitted activity rules, and relies instead on the permitted activities, specified as general authorisations, in the Transitional Regional Plan (TRP). The Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan (NRRP) became operative on 11 June 2011, and includes rules on the same matters as those in the TRP. The NRRP states that a rule in the TRP will continue to have effect until a rule on the same matter in Chapters 4 and 5 becomes operative. Now that the NRRP is operative, the TRP rules have ceased to have effect. As a consequence the references in the WRRP to the TRP provisions is incorrect and needs remedying so that the WRRP and NRRP are applied correctly in the Waimakariri catchment. |
19 July 2011 |
Plan Changes
| Download plan change |
Subject |
Status |
Plan change 1
|
Chapter 5: Water Quality
- Additions to Policy 5.1, to guide the allocation of water;
- An additional method to provide for monitoring of the river to determine the effectiveness of the flow regime;
- A new 5 m3/s “AA” block for the Waimakariri River mainstem that allocates water for reticulated community and stock water requirements with the “A” block is correspondingly reduced to 17 m3/s;
- An allocation limit for the Waimakariri River mainstem “B” block and “1:1 flow sharing” of the “B” block;
- Provision for some freshes and floods in the Waimakariri River mainstem to pass without take to avoid periphyton build-up;
- A shift of the flow monitoring site from the Old Highway Bridge to Otarama for the Waimakariri River mainstem ;
- Modification of the restrictions on discretion, effect of the rules on existing consents, notification provisions and definitions;
- The status for activities that otherwise do not meet Rule 5.1 are clarified as non-complying or prohibited activities; and
- Minor changes to maps and diagrams to identify the Otarama flow monitoring site;
- Amendments to the planning maps to correct the shown catchment boundaries of the “below Woodstock” area.
Read the plan change:
Public notice (pdf 49 kB)
The changes in 2011 brought in the following amendments to the original 2004 WRRP.
Read Waimakariri River Regional Plan 2004 (pdf 2.57 MB)
|
Operative |
Plan History
The Waimakariri River Regional Plan (WRRP) became operative on 23 October 2004. It sets out the objectives, policies, and methods for resolving resource management issues within the catchment of the Waimakariri River.
Plan Change 1 was incorporated in the Waimakariri River Regional Plan and made operative on 11 June 2011.