Reforms to National Direction for Freshwater: Continued
Reforms to National Direction for Freshwater: Continued
Monday 11 August, 2025
The focus of the proposals in Package 3 of Government’s national direction reform is freshwater. Alongside the proposals to rebalance the broader policies and objectives in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM) and the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Regulations 2020 (NES-F), there are a number of targeted proposed changes to address specific issues in the freshwater sector. This article will look at the following:
- Commercial vegetable growing;
- Water security and water storage;
- Wetland provisions;
- Fish passage regulations;
- Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser application; and
- Mapping of drinking water sources.
Enabling commercial vegetable growing
The Government is consulting on two options to enable commercial vegetable growers to grow food and rotate crops without the need for resource consent:
- Option 1: inclusion of a new objective in the NPS-FM to enable the continued domestic supply of fresh vegetables, and in doing so, provide for crop rotation. The intention behind this option is to clearly signal that enabling domestic supply of fresh vegetables is a priority and that crop rotation needs to be addressed in planning while at the same time allowing councils and communities to determine how this is achieved locally; or
- Option 2: development of new national standards that permit commercial vegetable growing.
These two options have links to the Special Agriculture Areas being consulted on under the proposed amendments to the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land.
Addressing water security and water storage
Creating water security is becoming increasingly important as the climate changes. The Government has recognised that in order to support the primary sector and build climate change resilience, a long-term approach to water security, including water storage, is required. The discussion document seeks consultation on:
- Whether to provide direction to councils, through a new objective or policy in the NPS-FM, to address the issue of water security as part of climate change resilience; or
- Whether to develop new national standards that permit the construction of off-stream water storage (and whether to progress these under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) or the replacement resource management system). Included in the consultation document are draft standards which set out the range of matters which might be subject to standards for off-stream water storage.
Simplifying wetlands provisions
Together, the NPS-FM and the NES-F set out the national direction and rules on how wetlands should be managed. Feedback received by the Government indicates that the current wetland regulations are restricting activities in and around low-value wetlands making the maintenance, use and upgrade of infrastructure difficult. Concern has also been expressed that the regulations definition of ‘natural inland wetland’ is too complex and that the exclusion of wetlands dominated by pasture has resulted in complex ecological assessments being necessary in order to determine if the regulations apply.
In line with this feedback, the Government is consulting on the following options:
- Defining induced wetlands (developed unintentionally as a result of human activity) and excluding them from wetland provisions in the NPS-FM and NES-F;
- Allowing some farming activities to occur in and around wetlands;
- Creating a new permitted activity standard (and potentially a consenting pathway) for farming activities (eg fencing, irrigation) that are unlikely to have an adverse effect on a wetland;
- Defining ‘wetland construction’, creating a new permitted activity standard (and consenting pathway) for activities related to wetland construction;
- Encouraging wetland construction and edge-of-field mitigations through a new objective/policy in the NPS-FM; and
- Removing the requirement for councils to map natural inland wetlands by September 2030.
Simplifying fish passage regulations
Under the NPS-FM, councils are required to provide for fish passage and identify and remediate existing barriers. The NES-F supports this requirement by providing for the construction of in-stream structures as a permitted activity, subject to conditions, and requiring a resource consent where these conditions cannot be met.
One criticism of the NES-F, shared by both councils and land users, is the onerous amount of information required on the design of in-stream structures. The Government is therefore consulting on whether to simplify fish passage regulations in the NES-F or retain the current regulations in the NES-F. The options to simplify the regulations are:
- Addressing information requirements in a single regulation that applies to all structure types;
- Removing requirements that do not directly inform how likely a structure is to impede fish passage;
- Updating the permitted activity conditions for culverts to reflect current practices, provide for boxed culverts and remove some conditions; and
- Considering whether temporary structures need to be treated differently to permanent structures.
Regulation of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser application
The NES-F currently requires farmers to apply for a resource consent if they want to apply more than 190 kg of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser per hectare per year and requires dairy farmers to provide receipts and information on fertiliser use once a year. In light of concerns about the reliability of the data collected and the improved management and use of nitrogen fertiliser across the sector, the Government is consulting on three options to improve the NES-F rules for synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. These options are:
- Option 1: repeal the requirement for dairy farms to provide receipts for purchases of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser;
- Option 2: align the reporting date for dairy farms with the farming calendar; and
- Option 3: repeal the requirement for farmers to use less than 190 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year on the grazed area of their farms, given that farmers and growers have improved their use of nitrogen fertiliser and continue to lift their uptake of good management practice.
Mapping requirements for drinking water sources
To assist regional councils with risk management and meeting their obligations to protect drinking water sources, the Government is consulting on whether to introduce a new requirement in the NPS-FM to map source water risk management areas (SWRMAs). This would be a one-off requirement whereby regional councils would have five years to map SWRMAs into three categories:
- SWRMA 1 – the zone directly surrounding the source water intake, where there is an immediate risk of contamination;
- SWRMA 2 – a microbial risk area, to limit concentrations of microbial pathogens before abstraction; and
- SWRMA 3 – the entire surface water catchment, or groundwater capture zone, to protect against persistent contaminants.
The Government is also seeking feedback on whether the mapping requirements should be incorporated into regional plans and whether it is appropriate to set a lower population threshold for them.
After consultation on these options has concluded, further consultation will occur on the chosen options later this year. The selected options are expected to reveal more about the Government’s intended direction.
National direction reform series
This marks the final article in our series exploring the Government’s proposed changes to the national direction under the RMA. Keep an eye out for further updates from us later this year once consultation has been completed and the Government releases further details on the proposed changes.
Consultation on the options proposed within Package 3 closed on 27 July 2025. If you have any questions on the Government’s proposed options to amend the national direction for freshwater, please contact one of our team below.
Our thanks to Law Clerk Lauren Aplin for her contribution to this article.
