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69: Rules relating to water quality
or “Rules that tell us how to keep water clean and safe for different uses”
You could also call this:

“This explains what a regional council must check before allowing things to be put into water or on land that might affect water.”

When a regional council wants to allow certain types of discharges in their regional plan, they need to be careful. They can’t just say it’s okay to discharge contaminants or water into water, or to discharge contaminants onto land that might end up in water. Before they do this, they need to make sure that these discharges won’t cause any bad effects in the water after they mix in.

The council has to check that the discharges won’t create oily or greasy films, scums, foams, or floating stuff in the water. They also need to make sure the water’s colour or clearness won’t change in a noticeable way. The discharges shouldn’t make the water smell bad or make it unsafe for farm animals to drink. Lastly, they need to be sure that the discharges won’t harm the plants and animals living in the water.

Sometimes, the regional council might want to include a rule that says people need to use the best practical option to stop or reduce any bad effects from discharges. Before they do this, they need to think about what’s being discharged and where it’s going. They also need to look at other options, like setting minimum standards for how clean the environment needs to be. The council has to be sure that including this rule is the best and most effective way to prevent or reduce those bad effects on the environment.

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Next up: 70A: Application to climate change of rules relating to discharge of greenhouse gases

or “How the rules about releasing harmful gases into the air are used to help stop the Earth from getting too warm.”
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Part 5 Standards, policy statements, and plans
Local authority policy statements and plans: Regional plans

70Rules about discharges

  1. Before a regional council includes in a regional plan a rule that allows as a permitted activity—

  2. a discharge of a contaminant or water into water; or
    1. a discharge of a contaminant onto or into land in circumstances which may result in that contaminant (or any other contaminant emanating as a result of natural processes from that contaminant) entering water,—
        1. the regional council shall be satisfied that none of the following effects are likely to arise in the receiving waters, after reasonable mixing, as a result of the discharge of the contaminant (either by itself or in combination with the same, similar, or other contaminants):
      1. the production of conspicuous oil or grease films, scums or foams, or floatable or suspended materials:
        1. any conspicuous change in the colour or visual clarity:
          1. any emission of objectionable odour:
            1. the rendering of fresh water unsuitable for consumption by farm animals:
              1. any significant adverse effects on aquatic life.

                1. Before a regional council includes in a regional plan a rule requiring the adoption of the best practicable option to prevent or minimise any actual or likely adverse effect on the environment of any discharge of a contaminant, the regional council shall be satisfied that, having regard to—

                2. the nature of the discharge and the receiving environment; and
                  1. other alternatives, including a rule requiring the observance of minimum standards of quality of the environment,—
                      1. the inclusion of that rule in the plan is the most efficient and effective means of preventing or minimising those adverse effects on the environment.