Source
https://www.tasman.govt.nz/document/serve/Water%20allocation%20waiting%20list.pdf?DocID=31399 — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Tasman groundwater waiting list: which zones are fully allocated
Summary
The Tasman Resource Management Plan sets an allocation ceiling for each groundwater zone but does not say how much of that ceiling is already committed. This register answers that question operationally. Its title is the finding: it is the waiting list for fully allocated zones, so any zone appearing in it has reached its limit and new water is available only if existing allocation is surrendered or lapses.
The register also records a rule that materially changes the position for a community water supply. In the Moutere zones, water is reserved for Māori perpetual lease land irrigation or for community water supply, and that reservation takes priority over the queue.
Key claims
- claim: "The register's title states its scope: 'Waiting List for Groundwater Allocation from Fully Allocated Zones', updated 19 May 2025. A zone listed in it has reached its allocation limit, so a new take is dependent on existing allocation being surrendered, lapsing or being reallocated."
source_location: "Document title and header, p.1 (updated 19 May 2025)"
- claim: "MOUTERE GROUNDWATER ZONES ARE FULLY ALLOCATED. The register lists 'MOUTERE GROUNDWATER, Coastal Groundwater Zone (OMCG)' with ten queued registrations in priority order, and 'Western Groundwater Zone' with two. Other listed zones include Motueka Central Plains and Hau, Upper Motueka (Tapawera, Wangapeka, Motupiko) and the Waimea Wai-iti Dam Service Zone."
source_location: "pp.1-2, zone headings and priority-ordered registration tables"
- claim: "COMMUNITY WATER SUPPLY HAS RESERVED PRIORITY OVER THE QUEUE (verbatim, applied to the Moutere Coastal and Western zones): 'Water is reserved in this zone for the irrigation of Maori Perpetual Lease Lands or for community water supply and this reservation has priority over the waiting list.' The register attributes the reservation to Schedule 31D of the Tasman Resource Management Plan."
source_location: "p.1, note *1 under the Moutere Coastal and Western zone headings; preamble referencing TRMP Schedule 31D"
- claim: "The same reservation note applies with community supply only (no Māori perpetual lease limb) to the Upper Motueka and Waimea groupings, verbatim: 'Water is reserved in this zone for community water supply and this reservation has priority over the waiting list.'"
source_location: "pp.1-2, note *1 under the UPPER MOTUEKA and WAIMEA headings"Neobiome Intelligence and regulatory relevance
This converts a plan ceiling into a site answer. REG_003 records the Moutere zone allocation limits; this register shows the Coastal and Western zones have reached them. Without it, the plan alone cannot say whether a new take has room.
Full allocation is not the end of the analysis for a community supply. Because the reservation takes priority over the waiting list, a community water supply in the Moutere Coastal or Western zone is not queued behind the registered applicants. The reserved quantity is set in TRMP Schedule 31D, which names a Braeburn / Hau Plains / Lower Moutere reticulation reservation of 6.25 litres per second and 540 cubic metres per day, an order of magnitude above the demand of a thirty-household community.
Two limits on that reading, both material. The reservation is expressed against a named reticulation scheme rather than against any new community, so whether a newly formed community could draw on it is an interpretation rather than a lookup. And Schedule 31D states that “any allocation of water for a reserved purpose is subject to the allocation limit for the relevant zone”, so the reservation operates inside the ceiling rather than beside it.
Privacy note. The raw lists applicant names and property valuation numbers. Those are not reproduced here; only zone-level status and the reservation rule are recorded.
Both readings, on the record. The narrow reading is that Table 2 lists named reticulation schemes, so the reservation attaches to those schemes and a newly formed community is not among them. The wider reading is that Schedule 31D describes the reserved quantity as being “for community water supply” as a purpose rather than to a named party, and the waiting-list note likewise states the reservation is “for the irrigation of Maori Perpetual Lease Lands or for community water supply” without naming a holder. The plan does not resolve between them, and this page does not either.
Research targets
Research gaps
- Whether a newly established community water supply can draw on the Schedule 31D community-supply reservation, or whether the reservation is confined to the named existing reticulation schemes. This is a council interpretation question, not a document lookup.
Connections
Links to
Sources (1): REG_003
Referenced by
Sources (1): REG_003