Environment Ministry suggestions that numerical targets be set for how much water can be taken and targets for water quality are impractical, Otago Regional Council chairman Graeme Martin says.
Reporting back to the council last week on a meeting the with ministry on implementing the National Policy Statement (NPS) on Water, Mr Martin said the ministry expected that every water body in New Zealand would have specific empirical targets set for limits regarding both water quality and quantity.
For quantity, it would specify the amounts that could be extracted and for quality, the amounts of water that might be discharged into the water body.
"The origin of that thinking is understandable. The cost and impracticality of implementing it is deeply challenging."
That thinking did not gel with the Otago Regional Council's approach.
Adding more instruments in the system risked hindering what the council was trying to achieve, he said.
"Other interpretations of the NPS are open and it may be that either the courts or public consultation process will determine outcomes."
He continued to advise the council that it should remain "very positively" on its current water strategy pathway.
