A working group has been set up by Environment Canterbury to oversee public consultation on a controversial water management charge which would have a major effect on water users in the Waitaki catchment and Canterbury region.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) proposed introducing the charge to recover 30% of water monitoring costs from consent holders from this financial year.
That would have affected water users in the Waitaki catchment, including major irrigation companies such as the Lower Waitaki, Morven-Glenavy-Ikawai and North Otago schemes.
But the proposal caused such an outcry, with more than 600 submissions against it, that ECan decided to defer it for 12 months for more public consultation.
Several submitters labelled the charge a "water tax".
ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke said deferring the proposed cost recovery for water management would allow for greater community input and more time for consultation with key stakeholders and consent holders.
Councillors had not dropped the proposal, but deferred it for a year.
"It is important that this message is conveyed to our regional communities," Sir Kerry said.
The working group would consist of three councillors - Eugenie Sage, Jo Kane and Angus McKay - and eight representatives from consent holders, local authorities, Ngai Tahu and environmental interests.
Sir Kerry said ECan had done research on the charge, but the consultation was more narrow in its scope.
Some councillors were concerned the management zone governance arrangements needed further consultation, hence the need to revisit the proposal.
The working group has been granted broad terms of reference. This involves the group developing and overseeing the consultation process and reporting on the outcomes and recommendations to the council by the end of January next year.
"There will be an independent technical assessment of costing and how that breaks down between cost recovery charges and the general rate, the basis on which consent holders will be charged and what options there are for addressing unusual or rare consents, for example, water takes for hydroelectricity projects," Sir Kerry said.
This would clarify work already done and better inform councillors when ECan made its annual plan decisions next year, he said.
Introducing the charge would have offset ECan's rate rise this year by an estimated 6%.