Outstanding Water Bodies

Plan Change 7 – Outstanding Water Bodies

The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council approved Plan Change 7 on 30 July 2025. It become operative on 29 August 2025, and has carried full legal effect since 23 April 2025.

Plan Change 7 makes changes to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Resource Management Plan to identify a list of the region’s outstanding water bodies and introduces new provisions to protect their outstanding and significant values. While no new regional rules are included, the policies apply to activities requiring resource consent under existing rules, meaning such applications must also address the relevant values of outstanding water bodies.

Plan Change 7 was notified on 31 August 2019, with a total of 41 submissions and 19 further submissions received from a range of groups and individuals. Appeals were lodged by Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, Te Runanganui o Heretaunga, Te Manaaki Taiao o Heretaunga and Ngāti Kahungunu lwi Incorporated; Forest and Bird; and the Māori Trustee, with Genesis Energy joining these appeals. Several other groups, including Silver Fern Farms, Horticulture New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay Wine Growers, and Federated Farmers, also joined the appeals but subsequently withdrew from the proceedings.

• View the operative version of Plan Change 7 and the Plan Change 7 public notice
• Final list of outstanding water bodies and indicative map
• Values associated with water bodies across Hawke's Bay and secondary assessments

Environment Court's Decision

On 23 April 2025, the Environment Court issued its decision on Proposed Plan Change 7 to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Resource Management Plan.

Key aspects of the decision include:

• The Court added six new outstanding water bodies, or parts thereof, to those already identified in the notified version of Plan Change 7, resulting in a total of 19. These additions are:

1. Heretaunga Plains Aquifer System
2. Ruataniwha Plains Aquifer System
3. Ngaruroro River - Whanawhana Cableway to Fernhill
4. Waitangi Estuary
5. Lake Poukawa and Pekapeka Swamp
6. Te Karamū River

• Inclusion of screening criteria with thresholds that a water body’s value(s) must meet to be accorded outstanding water body status.
• Confirmation that 19 water bodies in Hawke’s Bay have outstanding values.
• The resolution of conflicts between values is to be guided by, and undertaken in accordance with, the hierarchy of obligations in Te Mana o te Wai.
• Confirmation that estuaries/coastal water, or parts thereof, can be identified as an ‘outstanding water body’.
• Four new descriptions: mauri, nohoanga / pāhi, wāhi taonga, and whakapapa o te wai.

The following parties were part of Environment Court proceedings.

• Appeals were received from Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga and Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated, Forest and Bird, and The Māori Trustee.
• Six parties initially joined appeal proceedings. Four of these parties, Horticulture New Zealand, Federated Farmers, Silver Fern Farms, and Hawke’s Bay Wine Growers and Pernod Ricard, fully withdraw from appeal proceedings, prior to the Environment Court hearing mid-2024. 

Independent Hearing Panel’s decisions on submissions to Proposed Plan Change 7

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council publicly notified Proposed Plan Change 7: Outstanding Water Bodies on Sat 31 August 2019. A total of 41 Submissions and 19 Further Submissions were received.

Hearings were held late 2020, and the Independent Hearing Panel released their decisions on submissions to Proposed Plan Change 7 mid 2021.

Proposed Plan Change 7 – Development Process

The approach to identifying outstanding water bodies for inclusion in Proposed Plan Change 7 was comprehensive, beginning with a review of over 90 documents to record the values associated with 130 water bodies across the region. Information collected during this process is set out below.

Community Environment Fund Outstanding Freshwater Body Project

This national project sought to confirm the intent of the OWB provisions in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSM 2014) and develop criteria that could be used to assist regional councils identify outstanding water bodies.

Reports available:

• Literature Review 1 – Part One: Stocktake of existing literature used to inform the development of the NPSFM 2014, with a specific focus on the outstanding freshwater body provisions.
• Literature Review 1 – Part Two: Informed by Part One, addresses questions around the original intent of the NPSFM2014 outstanding freshwater body provisions.
• Water Conservation Order Review: Analysis of 32 Water Conservation Order reports and recommendations released by various courts and tribunals, to identify common themes, factors, and characteristics of those water bodies with an outstanding status. The report summarises the key values by value‐type, discusses the key factors and characteristics used by when determining if a value is nationally outstanding for WCO purposes, and sets out the factors and characteristics that have emerged for each value set.