Water science charges will be invoiced for the first time in the first quarter of this year on individuals, companies and organisations in the Canterbury region with consents to take water or discharge to water or land.
The invoices cover the period from July 2010 to June 2011.
That includes consent holders in the Waitaki catchment, which is administered by ECan.
ECan commissioner David Caygill said the water science charge was a new way of funding part of Environment Canterbury's water science investigations and monitoring work.
Before that, the work was funded from general rates.
Funding would now be from a combination of general rates and user charges.
Scientific investigations and monitoring work was required to better understand the nature of the freshwater resource to ensure it was managed efficiently.
ECan consulted extensively over the past couple of years to come up with a new way of charging for the work that provided a better balance between charging those who benefited from council services and those who drove demand for council services.
"The consultation period has come to an end and Environment Canterbury will now recover 30% of the cost of the scientific work from consent holders," he said.
Water consent-holders' share of the water science programmes this year was $2.4 million, with the remaining $5.3 million coming from general rates.
Monitoring work included the measurement of river flows and groundwater levels, monitoring of groundwater and surface-water quality, as well as monitoring the health of lowland streams, inland lakes and coastal lakes and lagoons.
The money collected from consent-holders would be used for scientific work in the zone it was collected from, as well as a share of relevant regional work.