Country’s first water exemption given
A small Tasman community has welcomed its general exemption to the drinking water standards, the first exemption for the entire country.
The standards came into effect on November 14, 2022, and all drinking water supplies, except those for self-supplied domestic dwellings, must comply by 2028.
Darryl Thomas, chairperson of the Torrent Bay Township Committee, said he was “rapt” that the community had been granted New Zealand’s first general exemption from the standards.
“The [Water Services] Act, as it’s written, didn’t really cover a situation like ours.”
Torrent Bay is an isolated community located in the Abel Tasman National Park, accessible only by boat or a three-hour bush walk from Mārahau.
The community is made up of 53 privately owned properties, a campsite, a public toilet, and a boat jetty. It has no permanent residents nor any centralised power supply.
Thomas said that the community can have more than 300 people during peak season around Christmas.
If an exemption wasn’t granted, it would have meant the community would need a water treatment facility that was powered constantly and able to meet peak demand, despite being home to very few people most of the year.
“It would have had a huge effect.” The exemption marks the end of a multiyear saga for the remote community since the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board told the township committee it would have to treat its water supply in 2016.
Since then, Thomas said he has worked with around a dozen staff from various agencies in trying to find a practical solution, frequently having to reiterate the bay’s situation.
“I’m bloody pleased to put it behind me, it’s been an ongoing process and dealing with many many people.”
However, Thomas took representatives of Taumata Arowai, the national water regulator, to Torrent Bay in June 2022 to show them their situation and said their engagement with the regulator has been constructive.
“I found in the end, and I’m pleased to say, that the rapport and the response I got from the Wellington team is very good. They’re very positive, could see where we’re coming from.”
Taumata Arowai head of regulatory Steve Taylor said when the general exemption was granted last month that the Torrent Bay Township Committee had demonstrated that meeting legislative requirements was unreasonable or impractical.
“And they were able to provide a solution to ensure people in their community consume safe drinking water.”
The exemption comes with several conditions that must be met, such as each property having to maintain and operate its own filtration and UV end-point treatment system or boil their drinking water.
Signage must be displayed advising people to boil water from taps in public spaces.
Thomas said that all the UV treatment units have been purchased and are in the process of being installed in each property.
Tasman mayor Tim King said the general exemption was “a really good pragmatic solution” for the community.