New Water Uses Must Receive Approval

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 18

New Water Uses Must Receive Approval

Although its main job under the Water and Soil Conservation Act has been to confirm water rights to those who held them before September, 1986, the North Canterbury Catchment Board has also had to consider so far 290 applications for new water rights. The new-rights applications have come chiefly for Industrial water uses established after the act’s 1986 deadline, and these users, like those with existing rights, must record them with the board before April 1, 1970, and from then on as they occur. While no charge Is made by the board for recording existing rights, a charge of $lO is made for each application for a new right. Because of the amount of work Involved in checking these

applications, the board, from January 1 last, increased the charge from $4. So far, the board has received $l6OO in new application fees, but, according to the Secretary (Mr W. W. Brough), there is no profit in them for the board. “A great deal of work is involved in checking,” he said yesterday. “We have recently engaged a man to record the applications, and we are advertising for a water engineer to take the load off the regular engineering staff.” Mr Brough said that many of the applicants thought that the $lO charge was an annual one. This was not the case, as it was made only to cover costs incurred in the initial investigation. )