The council confirmed the minister's actions in a statement yesterday regarding concerns the council is unfit to deal with 100-year-old mining water rights needing to be replaced with Resource Management Act consents by 2021.
The news comes after a council report leaked to the Otago Daily Times last month said the council was "ill prepared" to process the coming influx of water permit replacement applications.
The minister was unable to comment yesterday as he was overseas.
In a prepared statement, Mr Parker said he appointed Environment Canterbury commissioner Peter Skelton to conduct the investigation.
It must begin no later than July 1 and be completed by September 3.
It was not his intention to replace the council with commissioners, Mr Parker said.
He recognised the issue was complex and not of "your council's immediate making".
"However, this issue remains unresolved after 30 years and I want to do what I can to help."
The investigation would focus on whether the council "has or will have" the appropriate framework in place to consider applications for new permits before the old ones expired.
"It will also look at what support the council might need to achieve this," Mr Parker said.
He would decide on what action, if any, to take after he received the investigator's advice.
The minister took particular issue with the decision councillors made last year to delay the minimum flow-setting process on priority catchments and instead do it alongside wider national freshwater policy statement work.
This would delay minimum flow setting by up to four years.
"Until this occurs, all applications to replace deemed permits will be considered under the current operative plan which does not contain minimum flow rates or other specific limits."
Chairman Stephen Woodhead said the regional council welcomed the investigation.
He stressed the council's work programme would continue through the investigation.
Asked if it could have responded better to the problem in the past, he said it was not constructive to point fingers.
"It's easy to look back in retrospect and say, well, we shouldn't have made that decision, we perhaps should have acted in this way.
The decision last year regarding the timing of minimum flow setting was one he "strongly" opposed at the time.
However, the council was adapting to that framework.
Council chief executive Sarah Gardner said her role was to assist the investigator.
"We are still progressing our work, and I have confidence in our capability."
Otago Fish and Game Council chief executive Ian Hadland said he was pleased Mr Parker initiated the investigation.
"There's a deepening crisis in Otago freshwater management and this requires urgent, informed action.
"So far, Fish and Game's experience with the deemed permit process is that ecosystems are remaining in a highly impacted and degraded state."
It recently sent correspondence to Mr Parker outlining its experience with the deemed permit processes and its concerns about outcomes.
Otago Water Resource Users Group Manuherikia sub-group chairman Gary Kelliher said he thought the investigation would delay work even further.
While the council maintained the work would continue, having the investigator working with staff and councillors was bound to have an impact.
"Time is ticking by."
He was also disappointed water users were not specifically mentioned in the investigation's terms of reference, whereas the Department of Conservation, Fish and Game and iwi were.
"This obviously is indicating they are not as important as Doc and iwi."
ORC: The investigation
- Launched by Environment Minister David Parker.
- Assessing ORC’s preparation for work transposing hundreds of water permits into modern resource consents.
- Environment Canterbury commissioner Peter Skelton appointed investigator.
- Starting before July 1 and ending before September 3.
- Any action by the minister will be taken after its completion.
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Comments
Time for these clowns to be(1) incorporated into the DCC, or(2) permanently obliterated into obscurity,I personally along with thousands of other rate payers would prefer option number two.
"...He recognised the issue was complex and not of "your council's immediate making"...."
Huh? Many of the Councillors have been there for well over a decade, the current Chair has been in that position for over 6 years. If that isn't enough time to at least acknowledge a problem and point the organisation in the right direction what is?
Personally I think the investigation should have a wider scope, as there are many communities that have had the blind eye turned to them from the majority on this council.
Time for Change. The ORC have a culture that belongs in the past.