Agenda of Wellington Water Committee

Wellington Water Committee

Purpose

The Wellington Water Committee ("the Committee") is established to:

· Provide governance oversight of the network infrastructure for the delivery of bulk water, water reticulation, wastewater and stormwater services in the areas of Lower Hutt City, Porirua City, Upper Hutt City and Wellington City ("the four cities");

· Provide governance oversight of Wellington Water Limited; and

· Provide a forum for the representatives of Wellington Water Limited's shareholders (being Wellington Regional Council and the local authorities for the four cities) ("the Shareholders") to meet, discuss and co-ordinate on relevant issues and, through their representatives, exercise their powers.

Status

The Committee is a joint committee of the Lower Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, Upper Hutt City Council, Wellington City Council and Wellington Regional Council.

Specific responsibilities

The Committee's responsibilities are:

Governance oversight responsibilities

Governance oversight of Wellington Water Limited and of the network infrastructure for the delivery of bulk water, water reticulation, wastewater and stormwater services in the areas of the four cities, including by:

· Receiving and considering the half-yearly and annual reports of Wellington Water Limited;

· Receiving and considering such other information from Wellington Water Limited as the Committee may request on behalf of the Shareholders and/or receive from time to time;

· Undertaking performance and other monitoring of Wellington Water Limited;

· Considering and providing recommendations to the Shareholders on proposals from Wellington Water Limited;

· Providing co-ordinated feedback, and recommendations as needed, on any matters requested by Wellington Water Limited or any Shareholder;

· Providing recommendations to the Shareholders regarding the relevant network infrastructure owned by each Shareholder;

· Providing recommendations to the Shareholders regarding water conservation;

· Agreeing the annual Letter of Expectation to Wellington Water Limited;

· Receiving, considering and providing agreed feedback and recommendations to Wellington Water Limited on its draft statement of intent;

· Receiving, considering and providing recommendations to the Shareholders regarding Wellington Water Limited's final statement of intent.

· Agreeing when Shareholder meetings, or resolutions in lieu of Shareholder meetings, are required, without prejudice to Shareholder and board rights to call meetings under Wellington Water Limited's constitution;

· Seeking and interviewing candidates for Wellington Water Limited's board as needed and approving director appointments and/or removals;

· Approving the remuneration of directors of Wellington Water Limited;

· Monitoring the performance of the board of Wellington Water Limited; and

· Providing recommendations to the Shareholders regarding changes to these terms of reference, the Shareholders' Agreement and the constitution of Wellington Water Limited.

Shareholders' responsibilities

To the extent that each Shareholder delegates its relevant powers to the Committee member it appoints, the Committee will provide a forum for the Shareholders to meet and exercise their powers in relation to Wellington Water Limited.

Membership

The membership of the Committee will total five persons, as follows:

· One member appointed by Hutt City Council;

· One member appointed by Porirua City Council;

· One member appointed by Upper Hutt City Council;

· One member appointed by Wellington City Council; and

· One member appointed by Wellington Regional Council.

[Each appointee must be an elected member of the appointing Shareholder.]

Chairperson

The Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson will be elected by the Committee once all Committee members have been appointed.

Quorum

For a meeting of the Committee to have a quorum, three members, or their appointed alternates, must be present.

Where the Committee is providing a forum for the Shareholders to meet and exercise their powers in relation to Wellington Water Limited, the requirements of Wellington Water Limited's constitution will prevail.

[Note: Clause 11.3 of the company’s constitution provides that Directors shall be appointed and removed by the unanimous resolution of the shareholders. For this matter the quorum is therefore all five members or their alternates.]

Alternates

Each member appointed to the Committee must have an alternate appointed by the relevant Shareholder. The alternate may attend and vote at meetings of the Committee, but only in the event that the primary member is unable to do so.

Decision-making

The Committee will strive to make all decisions by consensus.

In the event that a consensus on a particular matter before the Committee is not able to be reached, each member of the Committee has a deliberative vote. In the situation where there is an equality of votes cast on a matter, the Chairperson does not have a casting vote and therefore the matter subject to the vote is defeated and the status quo is preserved.

Other than for those matters for which the Committee has effective decision-making capacity through these terms of reference, each Shareholder retains its full powers to make its own decisions on matters referred to it by the Committee.

Standing Orders

The Wellington Regional Council's Standing Orders apply, subject to the provisions for meeting quorum and decision making as set out in these terms of reference taking precedence.

Remuneration

Each Shareholder will be responsible for remunerating its representative on the Committee for any costs associated with that person's membership of the Committee.

Administration

Reports to be considered by the Committee may be submitted by any of the Shareholders or Wellington Water Limited.

Duration of the Committee

In accordance with clause 30(7) of Schedule 7 to the Local Government Act 2002, the Committee is not deemed to be discharged following each triennial election.

Appendix

Common delegations

Governance oversight responsibilities

· Each Shareholder will delegate to the Committee the responsibilities and powers necessary to participate in and carry out the Committee's governance oversight responsibilities.

Shareholders' responsibilities

· Each Shareholder will delegate to its appointed Committee member and, in accordance with these terms of reference, that person's alternate, all responsibilities and powers in relation to the agreement of:

o when Shareholder meetings, or resolutions in lieu of Shareholder meetings, are required (without prejudice to Shareholder and Board rights to call meetings under Wellington Water Limited's constitution); and

o the appointment, removal and remuneration of Wellington Water Limited's directors.

11 22 November 2017

Wellington Water Committee

Minutes of a meeting held in the Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, 30 Laings Road,
Lower Hutt on Wednesday 22 November 2017 commencing at 1.05pm

PRESENT:

Deputy Mayor D Bassett (Chair) (Hutt City Council)

Mayor W Guppy (Upper Hutt City Council)

Mayor M Tana (Porirua City Council)

Cr P Gilberd (Alternate Wellington City Council)

Cr D Ogden (Alternate Greater Wellington Regional Council)

APOLOGIES: Cr J Brash (Greater Wellington Regional Council) and Cr I Pannett (Wellington City Council)

IN ATTENDANCE: Mr T Stallinger, Chief Executive (HCC) (part meeting)

Mr C Crampton, Chief Executive (WWL) (part meeting)

Mr J Strahl, Chair (WWL)

Mr D Wright, Board Member (WWL)

Ms J Bryan, Principal Advisor (WWL) (part meeting)

Mr C Laidlaw, Chair (GWRC) (part meeting)

Ms K Stannard, Manager, Democratic Services, HCC

Mrs H Clegg, Minute Taker

PUBLIC BUSINESS

The Chair invited Mr Wright to the table. Mr Wright gave a brief history about his professional career and thanked members for their confidence in appointing him as Board Chair of Wellington Water Ltd.

1. APOLOGIES

Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17501

“That the apologies received from Cr J Brash and from Cr I Pannett be accepted and leave of absence be granted.”

2. PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no public comment.

3. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATIONS

There were no conflict of interest declarations.

4. Minutes

		Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17502 “That the minutes of the meeting of the Wellington Water Committee held on Friday, 1 September 2017, be confirmed as a true and correct record.”
5.	Company Update Report (17/1751) Report No. WWC2017/5/309 by Wellington Water Ltd
	The Chief Executive of Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) elaborated on the report. He stated the process for seeking tenders for operations and maintenance had commenced and significant interest had been received. He advised WWL had adopted a plan to review customer service and was working with Porirua City Council to develop a customer tracking and experience model, for the upcoming Scottish Water visit. He highlighted the More Tanks Faster concept. He noted Councils needed to establish the best way forward to ensure all households stored enough water for seven days following a disaster event. He advised the uptake of individuals buying tanks had recently plateaued. He added that central government had recently paid for half the cost of emergency water supply networks. He further added that WWL could install water tanks to residences in areas where they were already working to reduce costs. He advised that population growth within the region would impact on future water demand forecasting. He noted major investment in new water storage facilities had been brought forward due to this growth and that Councils should address this issue in their Long Term Plan processes. In response to a question from a member, the Chief Executive of WWL advised the three year rolling funding programme had been well received by all Councils and had enabled WWL to better plan and strategise.
	Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17503 “That the Committee: (i) asks Wellington Water Limited to report back firm costings to implement a pilot programme to supply and install household water storage tanks in a suburb; and (ii) asks that each local authority adds the matter of supply, purchase and installation of household water tanks to its Long Term Plan processes in order to gauge public opinion on the issue.”
	The Chief Executive of WWL advised District Health Boards were implementing their resilience programmes and the Hutt Valley DHB was already constructing a seven day capacity water reservoir. He advised that despite the reduced consumption rate of water per household, growth in population had resulted in water consumption reaching record levels. He cautioned that major capital expenditure for new water storage facilities and water saving measures would be required sooner than expected. He advised the Waterloo Treatment Plant upgrade was proceeding well despite added work, and congratulated Greater Wellington Regional Council for their collaborative approach. He added the expanded project was currently tracking on time and within the adjusted budget, with completion date due mid-December 2018. He anticipated many directives from the inquest into the Hawkes Bay situation. He agreed to report on Demand Management to the next Committee meeting with a view to organising a workshop on the issue so that a strategic case could be formalised. In response to questions from members, the Chief Executive of WWL advised the current leakage rate throughout the system was within expected levels at 14%. He noted that population growth had brought the issue of Demand Management to the fore. He acknowledged discussions and consultations could take up to three years.
	Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17504 “That the Wellington Water Committee receives Wellington Water Limited’s Company Update Report.”
6.	Letter of ExpectationS 2018/19 (17/1719) Report No. WWC2017/5/310 by the Divisional Manager, Democratic Services
	The Chief Executive of Hutt City Council explained the process followed to draft the Letter of Expectations, adding it had been a collaborative process between Councils. In response to questions from members, the Chair of Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) agreed that investment in information technology (IT) would require careful monitoring. He reminded members that the Letter of Expectations would be translated by WWL into its Letter of Intent. He added that the reason for suggesting IT investment and expenditure was to increase efficencies between Councils, noting any expenditure would first require the members approval. The Chief Executive of WWL advised that WWL was in the process of searching for new premises. He agreed to keep members updated.
	Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17505 “That the Committee: (i) receives the report; and (ii) agrees to the 2018 Letter of Expectations to Wellington Water Limited attached as Appendix 1 to the report and authorises the Committee Chair to sign the letter.”

7. Information Items

a)	Meeting Schedule 2018 (17/1611) Memorandum dated 18 October 2017 by the Divisional Manager, Democratic Services
	The Chair of Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) advised that, in the light of the recent Waikato media attention, WWL did not use business class for travel nor did it charge meals back to the company. He thanked members and shareholders for their renewed confidence and support of WWL, Deputy Mayor Bassett for his leadership and Board members. He added that WWL was fortunate to employ a Chief Executive of Mr Crampton’s calibre.
	Resolved: (Deputy Mayor Bassett/Mayor Guppy) Minute No. WWC 17506 “That the Committee agrees to the meeting schedule for 2018 as follows: (i) Thursday, 1 March 2018 commencing at 1pm (Greater Wellington Regional Council, Level 2, 15 Walter Street, Te Aro); (ii) Tuesday, 29 May 2018 commencing at 1pm (Upper Hutt City Council Chambers); (iii) Thursday, 6 September 2018 commencing at 1pm (Committee Room, Porirua City Council); and (iv) Thursday, 29 November 2018 commencing at 1pm (Committee Room 1, Wellington City Council)”
b)	Submission to Hamilton City and Waipa District Councils - Shared Waters Management Company (17/1762) Memorandum dated 16 November 2017 by the Divisional Manager, Democratic Services
	The Chair elaborated on the memorandum.
	Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17507 “That the Committee approves the draft submission to Hamilton City and Waipa District Councils – Shared Waters Management Company, attached as Appendix 1 to the memorandum.”

The Chair thanked the outgoing Chair of Wellington Water Ltd for his outstanding service to Wellington Water Ltd.

8. QUESTIONS

There were no questions.

9. EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

Resolved: Minute No. WWC 17508

“That the public be excluded from the following parts of the proceedings of this meeting, namely:

10. Minutes - 1 September 2017

The general subject of each matter to be considered while the public is excluded, the reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter, and the specific grounds under section 48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for the passing of this resolution are as follows:

(A)	(B)	(C)

General subject of the matter to be considered.	Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter.	Grounds under section 48(1) for the passing of this resolution.

Minutes of the Wellington Water Committee held on 1 September 2017	The withholding of the information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons. (s7(2)(a)).	That the public conduct of the relevant part of the proceedings of the meeting would be likely to result in the disclosure of information for which good reason for withholding exist.

This resolution is made in reliance on section 48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 and the particular interest or interests protected by section 6 or 7 of that Act which would be prejudiced by the holding of the whole or the relevant part of the proceedings of the meeting in public are as specified in Column (B) above.”

There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 2.28pm, and the non-public portion of the meeting closed at 2.33pm.

Deputy Mayor D Bassett

CHAIR

CONFIRMED as a true and correct record

Dated this 1st day of March 2018

Attachment 2

LetterofExpecationsforWWC

Wellington Water Committee

C/- Hutt City Council

Private Bag 31912

Lower Hutt 5040

23 November 2017

John Strahl, Chairman

Wellington Water Limited

Private Bag 39804

Wellington Mail Centre

Dear John

2018 LETTER OF EXPECTATION FOR WELLINGTON WATER

Wellington Water Ltd is entering its fourth year of operation. This letter sets out areas of focus we would like to see the company address, which we would expect to be expressed in its forthcoming Statement of Intent.

We have identified four priority areas:

· to continue to put the customer at the heart of what the company does and provide us with confidence that customer views are taken into account in the company’s service planning and delivery.

· to keep focusing on the four areas of service planning (growth, resilience, flooding and water quality).

· to introduce the disciplines of economic regulation on the company with a view to generating improved value for money.

· anticipating changes in Government direction that includes having plans in place for addressing climate change, water quality and emissions.

Each of these priorities is discussed in more detail below.

Customer

We can see the company is starting to make good progress with improving its customer relationships. Given customers also come to Council contact centres we are keen to work in a cohesive way to enable a single view of customer data and identify opportunities for improving customer experiences. One way to encourage improved customer experience is to allow the company to be driven by a few key customer metrics (ie complaints).

Investment decisions we make for three waters are ultimately on behalf of rate paying customers. It is for this reason that we think it is time to allow the Regional Service Plan (and 30 year infrastructure strategy) and changes to it over time to be influenced by customers. This could be achieved by involving the Customer Panel and Iwi for example more in the company’s service planning work.

Service planning

The top priority for the company over the next few years is to implement the Regional Service Plan, working with Councils to adjust it in line with Long Term Plan (LTP) changes. This would include planning for growth, meeting any requirements of the National Policy Statement for Urban Development Capacity and developing a rolling three year capital programme that proactively addresses customer issues. We would expect the company to address the following three waters issues over the next 10 years:

· Upgrading and/or installing new assets to support growth.

· Improving resilience from hazards through long-term projects, operational response and household preparedness (more tanks faster and two bucket system).

· Improving water quality through the Whaitua process and reducing wastewater overflows.

· Reducing the impacts of flooding.

These priorities are in common across all shareholding Councils, although levels of investment will vary depending on specific requirements of each city.

As the company considers improvements to water quality we would expect it to anticipate and be ready for results of the Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 results. We would like continued assurance that drinking water supplies are well positioned to comply with new or different requirements.

We would like the company to work with us to introduce regionally-consistent non-asset solutions, such as District Plan provisions, encourage changes in behaviour through education, policy and standards changes and codes of practice to help mitigate the impacts of storm water (eg flooding and degraded water quality). This could be achieved for example by incentivising (or requiring) water sensitive urban design, hydraulic neutrality, minimum floor levels, setbacks from open streams, and the protection of overland flow paths.

Value for money

Now the company has matured we would like to see it introduce a value for money system that reports long term performance in terms of cost per connection to households, three waters and by Council. The company can engage with Councils on how we optimise investment in the 12 service goals. We would also like to see the company develop key productivity measures on large expenditure items which demonstrate value for money. When combined with key customer metrics, this should result in a comprehensive way of demonstrating value to us.

We would like the company to continue to review and research international developments in 3 waters services. We would like to be kept up to date on new technologies and any developments which would have applicability here in the Wellington Region.

Government direction

We would like to be kept well briefed on progress against the new Government’s policies (ie water quality of rivers and streams, enabling growth in affordable housing and preparing for climate change and reduced emissions). Given Wellington Water Ltd’s critical mass we would expect the company to provide leadership on some of these challenges to the water sector.

We support the company’s aspirations to explore alignment with some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We look forward to hearing which ones the company chooses to commit to and how this might enhance achievement of the company’s outcomes.

Other considerations

In addition to the four priority areas there are several other initiatives we would like the company to embrace over the next few years. One is about developing a demand management strategic case with options that include considering future water source implications and options to better manage demand.

Another is about reviewing the company’s business processes which could lead to a business case that considers simplifying and regionalising complex IT systems (ie asset management system). We recognise that the company was not originally set up with regional systems and that developing them will require alignment with Council systems along the way.

Keep making the new health and safety vision and behaviours part of everyday life for the company and providing leadership to the sector. We would like assurance that critical health and safety risks and wellness initiatives are well managed.

In conclusion

We look forward to working with Wellington Water Ltd, as the company’s performance remains critical to our success and fostering customer satisfaction.

Yours sincerely

David Bassett Signature 2 (2)

David Bassett

Chair, Wellington Water Committee

UHCC-Logo-(Raster)_COLOUR(RGB) (2)

52 01 March 2018

Wellington Water Committee

21 February 2018

File: (18/230)

Report no: WWC2018/1/12

Havelock North Inquiry

Purpose of Report

1. To provide assurance that Wellington Water Limited is well placed on the urgent and early recommendations arising out of the Havelock North Drinking Water Contamination Inquiry Stage 2 Report.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee receives and notes the report.

Summary

2. Central government is yet to provide its response to the Inquiry’s recommendations but we are comfortable that the company is in good shape regarding the urgent and early recommendations, especially with our recent upgrade at the Waterloo Water Treatment Plant and work underway to develop the first Regional Water Safety Plan.

3. We anticipate that a Drinking Water Regulator could be established with an arms-length relationship with the Ministry of Health. This regulator may include Drinking Water Assessor responsibilities.

4. Further recommendations signal more change ahead, however we will have more time to work these through (eg licensing of Water Treatment Operators, legislative and regulatory improvements relating to the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand, National Environmental Standards regulations and Resource Management Act).

Context

5. There were 51 recommendations from the Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 Report that have wide reaching implications for the water sector in New Zealand and will forever change the risk landscape of drinking water supply.

6. The recommendations are in two sets. The first focuses on urgent and early changes and the second set focuses on longer term changes. Of these long term changes our main focus is ensuring our staff (and potentially those of our suppliers) can meet any new certification requirements and that the company will meet new water supplier licencing requirements.

Urgent and Early Recommendations

7. Of the total 51 recommendations, 19 are urgent and early in nature. Actual recommendations are in Appendix 1 to the report. In summary , they relate to promulgating the use of six principles to the water industry (Appendix 2 to the report); abolishing the ‘secure’ bore water classification, making changes to the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand (DWSNZ) around transgressions and protozoa compliance, and encouraging effective treatment.

8. The urgent and early recommendation suggested establishing a drinking water regulator to introduce new requirements for licensing and qualification of supplies, compliance and enforcement and approval and monitoring of Water Safety Plans. The recommendations also encourage establishment of joint working groups with regional public health and water suppliers.

9. A panel of drinking water experts is being established to provide advice to the Ministry of Health. Where possible and appropriate we’ll be involved in designing any new procedures or standards as they evolve.

How are we progressing?

10. Our progress against the urgent and early recommendations is in Appendix 3 attached to the report. In summary we have:

· provided Ultra Violet (UV) treatment and permanent chlorination at the Waterloo Water Treatment Plant. All Wellington metropolitan water sources now have barriers against microbiological contamination

· participated in the forming of a Joint Working Group with Regional Public Health and other agencies to increase collaboration and plan for improvements in drinking water supply and provision

· engaged a renowned water expert to help us complete our update of the Regional Water Safety Plan and are developing critical control point documentation. This work will be well advanced by the second week of March 2018.

· provided input to hearings on the Natural Resources Plan (NRP) which proposes changes to water quality management.

11. We have also been working closely with Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) to better understand the Waiwhetu Aquifer. This is relevant given the Inquiry recommends removal of the secure bore water classification, and is also relevant to catchment risk assessments required as part of the Regional Water Safety Plan. These will inform future planning.

12. We are assisting GWRC with the Waiwhetu Aquifer Water Collection Area Management Plan, to increase understanding of protection zone requirements for the Waiwhetu Aquifer and create a catchment management plan around the wellfield.

Potential longer term changes arising from the Inquiry

13. We will need to wait and see what develops out of the longer term recommendations. A number of these require more detailed evaluation and consultation.

14. You will note one of the recommendations suggests Government should consider options for aggregating water supply entities. Wellington Water is an example of such a model, as is Watercare in Auckland.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Urgent and early recommendations from the Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 Report	55
2 ⇩	Six Principles	60
3 ⇩	Wellington Water Progress against Urgent and Early Recommendations	62

Author: External Author (Wellington Water Ltd)

Attachment 1

Urgent and early recommendations from the Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 Report

Introduction

[1] As contemplated by its terms of reference, some of the Inquiry’s recommendations would, if accepted, involve changes to the existing law, and others are likely to require detailed reviews or consultation with interested parties. The Inquiry appreciates that these processes will take time.

[2] Other recommendations will not need a change to the law and can be implemented early, and without undue difficulty. In light of the public health and safety risks involved, and given the disastrous consequences which can occur following contamination of drinking water, the Inquiry’s view is that implementation of such recommended changes should take place as a matter of urgency. The risks of not doing so are simply too great. Some of these measures have already been accepted as appropriate by interested parties, and are being pursued.

[3] The recommendations identified in this part would substantially improve the safety of drinking water in Havelock North and elsewhere in New Zealand, and could prevent a recurrence of an outbreak of waterborne illness.

Recommendations

[4] In the light of the above, and for the reasons set out in the earlier parts of this report, the Inquiry recommends the following for urgent and early implementation:

Promulgate Principles of Drinking Water Safety

(1) The six fundamental principles of drinking water safety should be recorded and promulgated to the industry and used to inform all recommended reforms as well as the operation of the entire drinking water system.

[See Part 2 of this report]

Abolish the Secure Classification System

(2) The secure classification system in section 4.5 of the DWSNZ should be abolished forthwith. The concept of a secure classification is fundamentally flawed as it does not provide a sound or safe basis for dispensing with treatment or reducing monitoring requirements and provides an erroneous and misleading message that the bore water is safe.

(3) The Director-General of Health should urgently encourage and persuade suppliers and DWAs not to rely on any current “secure” bore water classifications. To this end, the Director-General should give consideration, inter alia, to publishing a statement relating to the performance of the duty imposed on suppliers under the Health Act in ss 69U and/or 69W.

(4) Section 4.5 of the DWSNZ should be deleted forthwith, with such other consequential changes as may be needed (for example, amendments to sections 3.1 (Compliance and Transgressions), 3.3.1 (Determinands), 4.3.8.2 (Free Available Chlorine Disinfection), 4.3.9 (Response to Transgressions), 5 (Protozoal Compliance), 10.3.2 and Table 10.1 (Microbial Treatment Requirements)).

(5) In respect of the changes to the DWSNZ identified in recommendation (4) above, the Minister of Health should utilise the powers in s 69P(2) to dispense with consultation before amending the DWSNZ, on the basis the Minister can be satisfied from the contents of this report, and the Stage 1 Report that the amendment is needed urgently.

[See Part 15 of this report]

Encourage Universal Treatment

(6) Because the risks to the public of untreated drinking water are simply too high to continue with such supplies until legislation mandating universal treatment has been considered and passed, the Director-General of Health can and should, in the interests of public safety and welfare, exercise effective and practical leadership to encourage water suppliers to use appropriate and effective treatment without delay.

(7) The Director-General of Health should promptly provide firm and clear advice to drinking water suppliers that all supplies should be appropriately and effectively treated pending any change to the law and/or the DWSNZ.

(8) The CEOs of DHBs (with PHU responsibilities) should advise drinking water suppliers that all supplies should be effectively treated pending any change to the law and/or the DWSNZ.

[See Part 5 of this report]

Establish a Drinking Water Regulator

(9) A dedicated drinking water regulator which can oversee all other reforms should be established early and promptly.

(10) The important fundamental characteristics of a dedicated drinking water regulator should include:

(a) Independence and freedom from conflicts of interest;

(b) A sufficient level of resourcing; and

(11) Without defining or limiting the matters for which a regulator might be responsible, a regulator should have responsibility for licensing and qualification of supplies, the standards and practices of water suppliers, DWAs, laboratories and samplers, compliance and enforcement, and the approval and monitoring of WSPs.

(12) Pending any legislative change in relation to the creation of a drinking water regulator, a Drinking Water Regulation Establishment Unit should be set up to address the matters set out below:

(a) Maintaining momentum;

(b) Facilitating the establishment of a drinking water regulator; and

The Ministry of Health’s current disaggregated drinking water resources do not possess the necessary skills and attributes and should not be used for this purpose.

[See Parts 7 and 10 of this report]

Interim Improvements at and by the Ministry of Health

(13) The Ministry of Health, via the DWAs and Medical Officers of Health, should take urgent steps to administer and enforce the existing regulatory regime, having regard to the findings and recommendations in this Stage 2 Report.

(14) Further:

(a) The Director-General should promptly put in place a clear and effective enforcement policy which emphasises, but is not limited to, the issuing of compliance orders by Medical Officers of Health under s 69ZZH, with a view to urgently improving compliance levels by suppliers.

(b) The Director-General should reformat the annual report and make effective use of ss 69ZZZB and 69ZZZC to hold suppliers accountable in a meaningful and direct way.

(c) The Ministry of Health should establish a panel of drinking water experts (with expertise across the range of different disciplines relevant to the delivery of safe drinking water).

(d) The panel of drinking water experts should provide advice to the Ministry in relation to implementation of all required interim improvements.

(e) The Ministry of Health should take all necessary steps to boost DWA numbers and resources.

(f) The HPO qualification should be removed as a requirement for DWAs.

(g) The Ministry of Health should urgently apply a substantial increase in resources and skills to drinking water so as to give effect to these recommendations.

(h) Dr Snee’s recommendations to simplify and clarify accountability for DWAs should be refined, as appropriate, and adopted.

(i) After 23 February 2018, the Director-General should issue a notice without delay under s 69Z(2)(vi) requiring any supplier who has not incorporated critical control points and process control summaries in its WSP to do so within two weeks.

(j) The Ministry of Health should recommend to the Minister that he invoke s 69P(2) to dispense with consultation and urgently amend the DWSNZ to require routine monitoring of total coliforms and to remove the use of presence/absence testing for E.coli and total coliforms.

(k) The Ministry of Health should establish an effective regime for drinking water samplers, including (at least) training, certification, and oversight.

(l) The Director-General should promptly remove Level 2 laboratory recognition.

[See Parts 7 and 19 of this report]

Amend RMA to Expressly Recognise Drinking Water Source Protection

(15) Sections 6 and 30 of the RMA should be amended to expressly recognise protection and management of drinking water sources as a matter of national importance and as a function of regional councils, respectively.

(16) The above amendments should be considered for processing, if appropriate, through the statute amendments bill process on the basis that they are matters of clarification and do not alter any substantive law.

[See Part 13 of this report]

Accelerate NES Regulations Review

(17) The review of the NES Regulations should be accelerated and consideration should be given to rewriting them as a matter of high priority to address the specific problems identified in this Stage 2 Report.

[See Part 14 of this report]

Encourage Joint Working Groups

(18) DHBs (with PHUs) should establish as soon as practicable (with the assistance of the Ministry of Health), a JWG (or groups) responsible for oversight of drinking water safety in their respective regions. Such JWGs should operate along the lines of the Hawke’s Bay JWG and the CDWRG described in this Stage 2 Report.

[See Part 9 of this report]

Urgently Amend the Health Act

(19) Sections 69P and 69R should be the subject of urgent amendment. Sections 69P (obligation to consult) and 69R (commencement of DWSNZ) effectively mean that no change can be made to the DWSNZ in less than five years, which is a wholly unacceptable timeframe.

Attachment 1

Draft Half Year Report 2017

What we do

Our role is to plan and deliver the three waters (drinking water, wastewater and stormwater) services to the local community.

We’ve achieved this by detailing what we will deliver in a single regional service plan, which has been agreed with our five shareholding councils. This plan identifies future infrastructure investments and their rationale from both a regional perspective and, when significant, from a local or council perspective. The plan is supported with budgets for each client council. Councils’ then use this information to develop their long-term plans and infrastructure strategies (for all assets).

Services include the collection, treatment and delivery of drinking water for our client councils; the construction, operation, management and maintenance of three waters networks assets and systems; as well as treatment facilities, pump stations, reservoirs and related networks. Ongoing and effective development and maintenance of these assets is critical for the local economy.

We have continued to progress four regional initiatives. These are to:

· build resilience for drinking water supply and wastewater;

· develop an integrated catchment approach to manage water and land use to achieve better outcomes (i.e. improve urban water quality);

· better plan for and accommodate urban growth and change; and

· better understand climate change impacts on our three waters networks.

We’ve continued to deliver a capital works programme that includes the upgrade, renewal and development of our three waters network infrastructure. This involved managing the lifecycle of water assets to support our communities’ three waters needs and accommodating council growth strategies and changes. It also required close collaboration with our suppliers and contractors to deliver to required standards (including health and safety).

What we’ve achieved

We orientate all our planning to three customer outcomes and 12 service goals. By doing this we can assure our client councils and our customers that all of activities such as. Budgets are directed to providing the right services today and into the future. Our current performance against our three customer outcomes and 12 service goals are provided in Appendix 2. This performance assessment is across the region as a whole. Individual council performance sheets are provided directly to councils.

Highlights of our performance in the four key areas:

· Respond to growth - we continue to meet day to day requests. Our biggest task in this area is to complete all three waters models by 2021. We are on track for this. We have also prioritised modelling completion in the high growth areas.

· Reduce the impacts of flooding - we are on track with all our stormwater models and working collaboratively with the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) on integrating models. We are progressing to plan on the Kilbrinie and Porirua CBD flooding works.

· Improve water quality - we are an active part of the Porirua Whaitua. It is generally progressing to plan. The Hutt/Wellington Whaitua is being set up. We have made an application for a global stormwater consent for the region.

· Resilience - good progress has been made with our emergency water sources work. We are 25 per cent through the work. There is a lot to be achieved in the next six months however all the planning has been completed so we forecast we will be completing it a little after 30 June 2018. The second exploratory harbour bore is being progressed. Household resilience is slowly improving.

Regional Service Plan

To help us deliver our customer outcomes and customer service goals, we have developed a 30-year Regional Service Plan (formally known as the regional asset management plan). This signals to our five client councils’ what to invest in and why against each customer service goal.

Following extensive engagement over the past 18 months on three waters investment priorities, we delivered a 10 year plan and 30 year strategy, which will be incorporated into each of the councils’ Long Term Plans (LTP). During the next six months we will be developing a detailed capital expenditure (capex) activity plan, which will inform our three-six year rolling programme from July 2018.

The Regional Service Plan identifies operating and capital expenditure needs over the LTP period with a specific focus on potable water quality, urban growth, flooding, health of waterways and resilience.

A number of significant capex items have been identified in the 10-30 year plan including the following:

· proposed new reservoirs to accommodate growth and improve resilience through more storage in the urban areas;

· extensive wastewater network improvements which are aimed at reducing overflows into the receiving environments and accommodate growth and improve resilience;

· a number of significant projects have been identified across the region to address flooding risk including PCC CBD, Tawa and Kilbirnie. Delivery of this work will ultimately improve resilience and strengthen the regional economy;

· a sludge management activity has been included in both Wellington City Council (WCC) and Porirua City Council (PCC) plan to address the treatment of waste arising from the treatment plants; and

· ongoing renewals across all three waters assets to maintain customer levels of service and the value of the region’s assets.

We have been part of councils’ Long Term Planning teams to ensure these documents represent the issues correctly. Over the first six months of 2017/18 we have had conversations with our client councils’ about how to optimise three waters investment as they consider investment across all council infrastructure assets. Our main aim is to ensure a well-balanced programme of investment and consistent treatment of regional initiatives (activities applying to all councils). We will now wait for council deliberations and decisions.

The company has been developing its first three waters strategy which takes a 30-50 year perspective on the issues and potential responses. The strategy has been completed to draft stage and is being socialised with client councils. Eight future service studies have been identified from this document, which will ultimately inform councils’ Long Term Plans.

Customer experience

Delivering a positive customer experience as we carry out our work will encourage people to trust us to manage their water services, and make them more likely to listen to our messages.

To help us understand how well we’re doing, we’re developing a suite of customer service measures. These will help us channel feedback about us into improvements we can make. A key part of this process is the customer hub, which is jointly operated with our maintenance service provider Citycare. Feedback and customer call-backs are carried out from the hub.

We recognise we have a long way to go in building a first class customer service model. To help us along, we invited representatives from Scottish Water to share their experiences and learning. Their input will guide our planning for the future as we look to establishing the service delivery alliance.

We are working towards a common customer experience across the region. We want to streamline and improve our customer measures, to make them more useful to both us and our customers. So while we are already using the results of customer service feedback to be more customer-centric, we feel we can do better in this area, and will continue working on that for the remainder of the year.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Develop a suite of customer service measures and start using the results to guide our business to be more customer centric.	We have started to develop a suite of customer measures. They include: · Customer feedback (Year to Date (YTD) number of complaints, compliments and call-backs, % of complaints completed in timeframes, customer call-back ratings, capex project surveys, and customer feedback by quarter and YTD). · Job summary per council (total number of jobs progressed and by priority, total average of jobs in progress and by each water type). · Citycare volume – (Last seven days number of jobs logged by council, job volume per 1000 connections by council, type of job, job volume by priority, and job % by status). We will start using the results to guide our business. We will report on our progress at year end.
Of an annual 10% sample of call-backs to customers, 80% have a satisfactory experience.	Our customer hub conducted a total of 34 customer call backs to help understand customer satisfaction. 88% of our customers received a satisfactory experience (excellent). We also conducted our first customer survey and received 1115 responses, 95% of customers are satisfied with the experience they received.
Invite Scottish Water to review our customer work and provide recommendations for future improvement.	Scottish Water visited us in August 2017 and made some suggestions for improvement. We’re incorporating these into our planning and discussions with potential alliance partners. We have documented these suggestions in the form of a Customer Plan which includes the following priorities: develop a set of customer behaviours; improve the relationship with customer contact centres; improve road signage; improve end-to-end customer process; and publish a customer report.

Company result area 1: Growing capability, resilience and culture

We want to be an organisation where people can do their best, and we are continuing to develop our capability and organisational culture to support the achievement of our customer outcomes and service goals. Our priority initiative was to develop and embed a workforce plan, which will help us develop the capability of our people and meet our future challenges.

Health and safety

The launch of our Health and Safety Vision and Behaviours has seen a positive increase in culture with all of our teams being involved with promoting and discussing how these vision and behaviours relate to them and the work they are doing.

The period has seen us meeting our Health and Safety performance levels in terms of Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR), Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) and positive to negative reporting ratio.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Staff engagement scores for “Safety Environment” increased in 2016 to 85%. This is 18% higher than the international benchmark and a 6% lift for Wellington Water in the same area since 2015. Our target is to maintain this achievement during 2017/18.	Staff engagement scores for Safety Environment reduced 4% from 85% to 81%. We will attempt to identify the root causes and develop actions to address them. This will be re-measured in 2018/19.
Near hit/risk reporting/something good ratio to total recordable injuries. Target: Increasing ratio of 50% year-on-year towards a stretch target of 25:1 by end of 2018/19. Our focus is on lifting contractor performance.	The near hit/risk reporting/something good ratios to total recordable injuries are as follows · Overall Ratio 54:1 (well above target of ≥ 25:1) · Wellington Water 83:1 · Contractor 48:1 (the contractor ratio has lifted due to an increase in contractor interactions).
Standard lag measures such as injury frequency rates for lost time, total recordable injury. Targets: LTIFR^{^[1]} 1.5 and TRIFR^{^[2]} 6 per 200,000hrs.	Both LTIFR and TRIFR rates have reduced compared to the 12 months to June 2017. · LTIFR – Wellington Water 1.1 / Contractors 2.4 (Total 1.55 – slightly above achieving target of ≤1.5) · TRIFR - Wellington Water 1.1 / Contractors 5..3 (Total 3 – well below the target of ≤6)

Leadership

Our leadership development programme is continuing to evolve as senior leaders take over the responsibility of facilitating group learning and discussion.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
All staff participates (within six months of joining) in a one day workshop for adaptive leadership.	One day adaptive leadership workshops have been facilitated for staff, and will continue to be provided. While the goal is for all staff to participate within six months of joining, in some cases this has not been met due to number of attendees and their availability. Overall result is above 95%.
An evaluation of how well peer learning groups are working will be completed by the end of 2017.	An evaluation took place in August 2017. Ongoing discussions with peer learning groups are now in place to track progress.

Engagement

We want to be a high performing organisation. To achieve this it’s important we have highly engaged employees who deliver performance, go the extra mile, and intend to stay.

While the 2016 employee engagement survey showed a significant increase in engagement from 2015, the 2017 survey has seen our overall engagement score go through a downward corrective and is now at the international benchmark. The recent survey indicates uncertainty about our future continues to be an area of concern for our people. Managing change effectively, while lifting engagement, will continue to be a priority for us.

Communications and Health and Safety continue to be strengths, both results sitting well above the benchmark. Further investigation will be required to identify the specific areas to focus on in the year ahead to improve engagement. In addition to continuing to focus on the development of leadership and individuals, we have developed a Wellness Strategy within the Health and Safety framework, and implemented an extensive package of initiatives, which have been very well received by our people.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
We continue to see an increasing trend in our overall engagement score.	There was a reduction in the December 2017 overall engagement survey score, particularly around the ‘future’ questions i.e. expectation of what is to come within the organisation over the next two years. We will need to analyse the overall results to determine the root causes and actions required.

Working across the company

To make sure we are as effective as possible in our service planning approach we have organised our people into groups with an overriding mantra that workflow is more important than structure.

Statement of Intent Measure

Commentary

Working effectively across the organisation will be measured by adding a new specific question on workflow to the next engagement survey.

A question was added into the Engagement Survey in December 2017 "People at Wellington Water work collaboratively (together) to get things done across the groups." The overall score was 57% (not benchmarked).

Note: This means 57% of respondents either strongly agree or agree with this statement. Only 3% responded negatively to this question.

Specific priority – workforce plan

The workforce plan was agreed with Leadership and Customer Service as the key areas to focus on. Our ability to attract and retain skilled and capable people remains critical to our success. We have encouraged managers and staff to focus on individual development and growth, and we have continued to develop our engineering capability, through partnering with Engineering New Zealand.

We now have around 205 roles and our growth in numbers can be attributed to the transfer of the Porirua Works Depot, plus a role from Wellington City Council, to Wellington Water, along with other newly funded roles to support water quality and urban growth.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
A workforce plan signed off by the Senior Leadership Team by 1 July 2017 and key areas developed and actioned.	A workforce plan was approved in July 2017. Two key focus areas have subsequently been identified as Leadership and Customer Service. We have added a capability in critical roles. We propose to take a regional approach to this issue over the next 12 months.

Company result area 2: Creating value for money

Our biggest value for money offering is to optimise the Regional Service Plan. Complementary to this, we have also implemented regional initiatives for resilience, climate change, urban growth, and catchment areas. Our priority initiative is to implement the Service Delivery Strategy.

Regional service plan

The regional service plan has been prepared to inform our client councils’ 2018-28 Long Term Plan (LTP) and Infrastructure Strategies. These documents will remain in draft until the LTPs have been finalised. The regional service plan addresses key issues that have been identified through gaps in performance in service goals and through discussion with client councils. We will know if this plan works when our performance against the key service goals is improving. The plan has been informed by a three waters strategy which highlights required improvements.

Statement of Intent Measure

Commentary

Produce a regional service plan and provide input to councils’ 30 year Infrastructure Strategies to inform council 2018-28 Long Term Plans.

A draft of the third generation plan incorporates investment requirements to close the gaps on service goal performance. Budgets have been submitted to each of the councils and the draft documents have been completed. The final documents will be finalised after consultation with councils.

The plan will be completed before 30 June 2018.

Evaluate, over three years how well we are implementing the regional service plan by assessing performance against service goal measures.

Once the plan has been implemented we will start the evaluation process.

Capital works programme

An integral part of delivering the regional service plan is delivering the capital works programme. This involved working with our consultancy panel to achieve seamless and efficient delivery to enable better quality outcomes.

We are working towards organising ourselves into a more proactive cycle of working with our contractors. This requires better planning, change control, and agility to respond to new information as it becomes available, as well as good consultation with our client councils and other interdependent utilities. We will continue to look for opportunities to lift performance and improve relationships we have with suppliers.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
95% of all planned construction projects from client council annual plans are completed within timeframes agreed with councils.	Based on current performance we expect to meet this measure.
90% of all completed projects (from a 10% sample) met requirements of the project brief.	Based on current performance we expect to meet this measure.

Regional initiatives

One of the reasons for forming Wellington Water was to see where there could be benefits from taking a regional approach to solving an issue. We have identified four key areas where adopting a regional approach should benefit client councils:

· Resilience for drinking water supply and wastewater;

· Catchment management approach;

· Urban growth and change; and

· Climate change impact on three waters.

Resilience for drinking water supply and wastewater

Implementing our water supply resilience strategy “Towards 80-30-80” is well underway and is focused on a series of network improvement and community initiatives that will progressively improve the resilience of the water supply network over time.

Our priority is to build community awareness of need for households to have at least seven days of drinking water stored, and to work alongside critical customers and other utilities to achieve the same. Seven days storage is not only required for maintaining household viability, but is also needed to provide us with the necessary time to focus our efforts on priority repair work.

We have started investigations and design processes for projects that will deliver new water storage for Wellington CBD and Porirua; strategic stores; alternate bore water supplies as well as water filtration and treatment options. Water stations at community distribution hubs are being designed and the required landowner approvals and resource consents obtained.

We have engaged with our client councils to ensure resilience investments are understood, agreed and visible in their 2018-28 council long term plans.

Our community awareness activities have revolved around the Water Hero theme, the thrust of which is to raise public understanding of water and its use, and especially the need to store drinking water at home. Regular channels as well as social media have been used.

We also know that our wastewater network is equally vulnerable to a major shock. Our wastewater strategic case identified almost 80 per cent of the network is considered to be non-resilient. The strategic case identified more work was required to make communities more self-sufficient and that there was a need to work more closely with other utilities to improve recovery efforts.

Our approach for improving water supply and wastewater resilience is highly dependent on collaboration with local government, central government, suppliers and other utilities. This collaborative approach has seen us already working with central government to implement some of the personal resilience and network recovery initiatives identified for drinking water.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Implement the water supply resilience strategy by implementing education and community programmes to raise awareness of the need for drinking water and wastewater self-sufficiency for at least the “first seven days” by June 2018.	Education and community programmes to raise public awareness of drinking water and wastewater self-sufficiency are well underway. We have continued to promote our Water Hero campaign through digital and traditional media.
Investigating, and if approved, implementing agreed initiatives (e.g. network alternatives and new water source, reservoirs and equipment projects) by June 2020.	The programme of investigations and potential projects and initiatives is being developed and some projects accelerated. Community Infrastructure Resilience is making substantial progress toward establishing emergency water sources and distribution within the ‘emergency islands’.
Complete a wastewater programme business case by June 2019	The draft wastewater resilience strategy has been completed and confirms the need for an operational response plan which will be started in the 3^rd quarter 2017/18. The combination of these will inform whether we proceed to develop a programme business case in 2018/19.

Catchment management approach

We are adopting an integrated approach to planning, investment and management of activities to achieve better outcomes across all three waters in the region.

As we develop an integrated approach we will consider the direction set by National Policy Statements, utilise our operational knowledge of the networks and work with our stakeholders to share information and build capability to enable holistic investment decision making.

Our catchment approach will be influenced by Whaitua processes^{^[3]} in the region. The Te Awarua o Porirua Whaitua is underway, and the Wellington Harbour and Hutt Valley Whaitua is currently being formed. We will continue facilitating, providing information and advocating for three waters as part of the Whaitua process to achieve both aspirational and realistic outcomes for communities.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
An Integrated Catchment Management Plan (ICMP) is being developed by end of March 2018 for Lambton Harbour as part of the existing global stormwater consent held by Wellington City Council.	ICMP for Lambton Harbour is on track for delivery in March 2018. This plan will lead to clearer direction on the areas for further investment to improve water quality.
A global stormwater consent for all Councils will be in place by the end of 2017 calendar year, which will initially require a stormwater monitoring regime followed by the development of stormwater management strategies by all Councils.	We have been working with our key stakeholders to establish a global stormwater consent that will include a five year monitoring regime. The consenting process has been delayed due to a request for further information but is expected to be resolved by March 2018.

Climate change impact on three waters

We know that climate change is upon us with an increasing likelihood of frequent and intense rainfall and rising sea levels affecting stormwater networks and causing flooding in low lying areas.

We are working to plan proactively and regionally for this impact to ensure value for money and that our actions are in alignment with council growth strategies.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Develop a strategic case to investigate effects of climate change on stormwater management by 30 June 2018.	A strategic case is no longer considered necessary as climate change is a key consideration in all our strategy and planning processes. We continue to contribute to climate change work being led by our client councils, Local Government NZ, central government and the University of Victoria.

Urban growth and change

As well as the usual growth planning, the National Policy Statement for Urban Development Capacity requires councils to provide in their plans enough development capacity to ensure demand for development can be met. Development capacity includes the provision of adequate infrastructure to support the development of land. Our focus is on supporting the proposed changes and providing advice on infrastructure changes to meet growth strategies.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
A survey that tells us whether client councils are satisfied with our involvement in the early planning stages of growth and development changes, our contribution to spatial planning and ensuring increased alignment with their strategies for future growth	Survey to be completed in the second half of the 2017/18 year.

Our value for money system

We continue to display a culture of eliminating waste, continuously improving and introducing innovation. This has been demonstrated through rising registration of value for money initiatives from within Wellington Water and especially throughout our supply chain (e.g. consultants and contractors).

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
A trend of increasing registration value for money ideas from within Wellington Water and throughout our supply chain.	The number of value for money ideas has continued to rise. At the end of December 2017, our value register has 428 ideas of which 137 are logged in the first half of the current financial year. This is a 27% increase from same time last year and 140% increase from the year before. The biggest contributors are our construction contractors.
An independent reviewer agrees that greater than 85% of our value for money ideas have actually generated value.	The valuation system and approach have been independently reviewed and concluded as sound in terms of the accuracy and reasonableness of calculations and assumptions made. We have continued with the same system and approach this year and will be conducting a light review towards the end of the year to make sure we are on track.

Specific priority – service delivery strategy

One of the three themes that arose out of the “Shaping our Future” initiative was to develop a collaborative service delivery strategy that consolidates our approach to water services across the region. This strategy will encapsulate wastewater treatment plants, maintenance services, network upgrades and consulting services. The final strategy was completed by July 2017, with delivery commencing immediately and through the following three years.

The regional service delivery strategy will drive regional consistency and operational excellence, including developing a health and safety culture with our suppliers and promoting innovation and new technology opportunities. We will be looking for reliable delivery of the capital programme, fully utilising our new consulting panel and will review our in/out sourcing arrangements as we develop the strategy.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Regional service delivery strategy completed and endorsed by 30 July 2017	Service Delivery Strategy was completed and implementation commenced prior to 30 July 2017.
Regional service delivery strategy implemented progressively through 2020, including wastewater delivery, operation and maintenance alliance; and contractor panel.	Alliance registration of Interest completed and three parties shortlisted to continue into the competitive dialogue stage. Contractor panel strawman model developed and sent out to interested parties for feedback. Strategy for the single approach to treatment plant management is being developed and is in the information gathering stage at present.
Quarterly reporting against strategy milestones to the Senior Leadership Team.	Senior Leadership team are engaged in the consultation process and receiving regular reports on progress of all three streams.

Company result area 3: Working collaboratively

We work collaboratively with our customers, shareholders and key stakeholders at central, regional and local levels. Our goal is to be seen as a trusted adviser to councils, managing our relationships with our stakeholders will help us achieve that.

Working collaboratively includes putting ourselves in the centre of all conversations with authenticity and a commitment to act.

Our priority initiative is to develop relationships with neighbouring councils to improve three waters service provision.

Trusted advisor to our shareholders

As a trusted advisor to our client councils it is essential we are transparent and responsive to their needs and expectations. We treat each client council as an individual, with specific conditions and needs that we must meet and where it makes sense introduce a regional perspective.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Client council representatives judge us on an ongoing basis as being their trusted advisor	We continue to be judged as meeting the requirements of being a trusted advisor by our client councils’ representatives.

Central government

At the national level, there are a range of matters relating to water governance and management that we need to be involved in, including resilience.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Work alongside central government to improve the resilience of the three waters infrastructure including providing advice to central government on three waters issues.	Collaborated with Ministry for the Environment on the implementation of the National Policy Statement for Urban Development; the development of National Planning Standards; and guidance on improving urban waterways.
Involve central government in our initiatives as appropriate e.g. climate change impact on three waters.	Worked closely with the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to ensure funding allocated in Budget 2017 is used to improve the regions resilience (i.e. drilling bores and installing bladders in communities).

Other stakeholders

We have worked with Local Government New Zealand on their Water 2050 Project including looking at funding options and continue to build our relationship with the Local Government Commission, by coordinating submissions on relevant topics.

We continue supporting Water New Zealand by participating in and leading national projects (i.e., the customer value project which conducted nationwide water research that has been published).

We have signed up a Memorandum of Partnership with local iwi through their Post Settlement Governance Entities – Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust and Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira. We will continue to further develop these relationships through the Whaitua and other processes.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Conduct an annual stakeholder survey by 1 April 2018 in consultation with client councils.	This is an annual measure and will be reported at year end.

Specific priority – neighbouring councils

We have already begun discussions with neighbouring councils in the wider Wellington region, including some Wairarapa councils, to explore how we can help them with asset management and data related services such as providing assistance in implementing metadata standards. We will consider how we could fund this in a sustainable way.

Statement of Intent Measure	Commentary
Provide asset management and data related services to neighbouring councils, including implementation of metadata standards and sharing our knowledge.	We provided assistance to South Wairarapa on their asset data management and renewals planning project.

Operating frameworks

Key operational focus areas for the company include improving company systems, risk management, company performance through our results sheets process, completing special projects and setting up One Budget and securing funding certainty.

Company systems

We’ve continue to develop our systems. This includes implementing the Information Strategy that is focused on recording and maintaining accurate data, which is transformed to information to aid decision-making and is shared to support knowledge. Our focus has been on simplification of underlying business processes, the development of new, integrated systems to support our processes, and a rationalisation of applications currently used by employees. We have also implemented our Information Technology Strategy and are monitoring the development of technology-enabled smart services supporting three waters operations.

Risk management

Our risk management framework supports our company strategy and outcomes and aims to integrate risk management across all aspects of the company. We’ve invited all staff to engage in risk management, understand their role in risk processes, and influence and improve risk effectiveness. Our risk procedures require all groups to actively maintain their risk profiles and risk registers and to discuss risks, their treatment programmes, and to report on them on at a leadership level on at least a quarterly basis. Risk management and its effectiveness are discussed at the Senior Leadership Team quarterly performance meetings. We report risks quarterly to the Board Audit and Risk Committee and discuss treatment programmes to mitigate extreme risks at each meeting. Quarterly we report to the meeting of the client councils’ representatives’ on risks relating to the work programme and those we collectively share.

Company performance

Please refer to Appendix 2 for a summary of performance against our outcomes and service goals and to our website for performance against DIA measures. We continue to report performance to the Board, our five client councils’ and the Wellington Water Committee on a quarterly basis.

Special projects for 2017/18

To contribute to the company’s smooth operation, we will investigate with councils how we can effectively support consent activity, have increased access to warrants that our people need to do their jobs, undertake asset valuations, and continue the move towards regionally consistent three waters bylaws and policies.

One Budget and funding certainty

From 1 July 2017, we have implemented the One Budget concept for operational and capital funding for each council. This consists of each council paying to Wellington Water the full allocated operating and capital budget for three waters in 12 monthly instalments. From this funding stream, we will optimise the costs between the company, consultants and contractors. Once the 2018-28 LTP is approved by councils, we envisage fixing annual funding over a three year period, providing the company with more certainty. We will be more explicit about risk pricing, our method for managing risks and any coverage individual councils need to be aware of. In the case of capital projects, we will use the retiming of projects as the principle basis for managing scope and cost risk, but this will be done with the agreement of councils involved. Similarly, councils expect to be able to modify funding priorities in the event of emergencies or other significant events, this would be done in discussion with the company and in consideration of existing commitments and operational risks.

Appendix 1: Who we are

Wellington Water is a council-controlled organisation jointly owned by the Hutt, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Wellington City Councils, and Greater Wellington Regional Council.

We employ 205 staff and provide services to the customers of the metropolitan area of Wellington on behalf of our shareholders.

Each shareholding council owns its own water services assets (pipes, pump stations, reservoirs and treatment plants), and decides the level of service it will purchase from Wellington Water, the policies it will adopt and investments it will make (after considering advice from Wellington Water) in consultation with respective communities.

Wellington Water Committee

The Wellington Water Committee consists of representatives of each of the five shareholding councils.

The Committee provides governance oversight. The Committee writes an annual Letter of Expectations (LoE) to the Chair of the Board of Wellington Water, which outlines key priorities and areas of focus for the company.

Wellington Water Board of Directors

We are governed by a Board of independent directors. The Chair of the Board reports to the Wellington Water Committee. The Board approves the company’s strategy, ensures legal compliance, that the company has necessary capability to deliver and it monitors the company’s performance, risk and viability.

On 1 September 2017 the Wellington Water Committee agreed to appoint a new director and extend the term of others: Geoff Dangerfield was appointed as a director from 1 October 2017 for a term of three years. Board Chair John Strahl’s term expired on 31 December 2017 and David Wright has been appointed Chair from 1 January 2018. David Benham is appointed to 1 July 2018. Nicola Crauford’s term was extended to 31 December 2018. David Wright’s term was extended to 1 February 2020. Cynthia Brophy’s term was extended to 1 February 2021.

Attachment 1

Draft Half Year Report 2017

Appendix 2: Customer outcomes and goals

Appendix 3: Performance measures

Outcome	Service Goal	Objective (KRA)	Measure	Target	2017/18 Half year result		Client
Safe and Healthy Water	We provide safe and healthy drinking water	Water is delivered to meet current NZ Drinking Water Standards and water supply legislation so that our ongoing activities prevent contamination of treated water.	Compliance with National Drinking Water Standards	100%	Currently achieving for 2017/18 YTD	S	GWRC
		Water supplied is of acceptable quality to customers.	Number of customer complaints relating to: · clarity · taste · odour · pressure or flow · continuity of supply · responsiveness	<140/1000 connections (HCC, PCC, UHCC^{^[4]}, WCC) <5/1000 connections (GWRC)	8.19	S	HCC
					3.31		PCC
					2.58		UHCC
					6.72		WCC
					0.02		GWRC
	We operate and manage assets that are safe for our suppliers, people and customers	Water services are delivered in a way that is safe for our suppliers, people and customers	LTI’s involving Wellington Water or its suppliers in activities associated with operation of council assets	Nil	3	S^{^[5]}	Wellington Water measure
		Asset safety risks are identified and improved	Number of assets identified for improvement as entered in the company's Health and Safety risk register	Trend only	4	S	Wellington Water measure
	We provide an appropriate regional wide fire-fighting water supply to maintain public safety	Sufficient water is supplied to meet urban firefighting needs under normal conditions	Number of identified key hydrants that meet testing requirements (as defined in SNZ PAS 4509:2008)	95%	Annual measure	S	All Clients
		We identify and implement water supply improvements to assist the Fire Service	Number of asset improvements completed to improve firefighting service	1 per year	Annual measure	S	All Clients
	We minimise public health risks associated with wastewater and stormwater	The public is protected from direct exposure to untreated wastewater onto land	Number of dry weather network blockages that result in discharge to land	Nil	1	S^{^[6]}	HCC
					0		PCC
					0		UHCC
					8		WCC
		The public is protected from direct exposure to untreated wastewater onto beaches	Percentage of days during the bathing season (from 1 November to 31 March) that the monitored beaches are suitable for recreational use	90% (HCC, PCC, WCC only)	100%	S	HCC
					100%		PCC
					100%		WCC
Respectful of the environment	We manage the use of resources in a sustainable way	Our customers receive water services that are managed efficiently through minimising water loss	Gross average drinking water consumption (litres) per resident per day	335 l/p/d (PCC, UHCC)	344	S^{^[7]}	UHCC
				335 l/p/d (PCC, UHCC)	313	S	PCC
				345 l/p/d (HCC)	377	S^{^[8]}	HCC
				375 l/p/d (WCC)	361	S	WCC
		Our customers receive water services that are managed efficiently through minimising energy consumption	Electricity usage at pump stations and treatment plants - GJ/cum for water supply and wastewater	Set baseline	Results not yet available	S	NA
		Our customers receive water services that are managed efficiently through minimising production of treatment plant waste	Sludge disposed to land fill from water and wastewater treatment plants (t/ML and t/ML DS)	Set baseline	Results not yet available	S	NA
	We maintain or enhance the health of our waterways and the ocean	Water quality of the waterways and harbours is not adversely affected by discharges from any of the three waters networks	Percentage of monitored fresh water sites that have a rolling twelve month median value for E.coli (dry weather samples) that do not exceed 1000 cfu/100ml	90% (HCC, PCC, UHCC, WCC)	83%	S^{^[9]}	HCC
					44%	S^{^[9]}	PCC
					90%	S	UHCC
					96.3%	S	WCC
		Integrated catchment management plans are used in a collaborative approach with stakeholders to carry out improvements to the water quality of waterways and harbours	Number of new water quality improvement projects initiated from ICMPs for the region	1 per year	Tracking towards annual target	S	All Clients
	We influence people’s behaviour so they are respectful of the environment	Communities are educated to use our infrastructure in ways that reduce the impact on the natural environment in areas such as stormwater pollution and water conservation	Percentage of people surveyed who understood nominated education messages conveyed within same financial year	30%	Tracking towards annual target	S	All Clients
	We ensure the impact of water services is for the good of the natural and built environment	Water services are managed to comply with consents	Compliance with resource consents for the water supply, wastewater and stormwater activities (full compliance is no notices/convictions):	100% compliance (Zero notices)	Zero notices	S	All clients
		Water services are built and managed in ways that are not intrusive to communities	Number of confirmed customer complaints relating to odour, noise and visual impacts for three waters	<5/1000 connections	0	S	All clients
Resilient networks support our economy	We minimise the impact of flooding on people’s lives and take into account climate change	Our operational response to flooding events satisfies customers’ expectations	Median response time to attend flooding event	60 mins (HCC, PCC, UHCC, WCC)	37.8	S	HCC
					0		PCC
					37.8		UHCC
					48		WCC
		The potential impact of increased sea levels and flooding on property and key transport links from stormwater is identified and the impacts are minimised	Percentage of urban catchments covered by detailed hydraulic stormwater models.	100%	45% (approx.)	S	All Clients
		The impacts of an additional 1 m sea level rise are understood and preventive measures are implemented where practicable. Where prevention is not possible, the impacts will be managed operationally		100%	45% (approx.)	S	All Clients
	We provide three waters networks that are resilient to shocks and stresses	The resumption of water services to customers is prioritised and managed appropriately	Percentage of customers with access to sufficient potable water for at least 7 days (using at least 3 l/person/d)^{^[10]}	80%	3-10.4%	S^{^[11]}	All Clients
	We plan to meet future growth and demand	The water supply network meets normal demand except where a drought is more severe than a 1-in-50 year return period event	The assessed reliability of the potable water network shall not exceed an annual shortfall probability of 2% (assessed using the Sustainable Yield Model).	Less than 2%	Annual target (last assessed < 2%)	S	All Clients
	We plan to meet future growth and demand	Water supply and wastewater services are planned to accommodate changes in demand and future growth, with a focus on reducing water wastage	Total volumetric deficit of water supply storage based on 2 days of storage at average daily demand	Zero	Not tracking well towards annual target as need to complete a number of upgrades.	S	All Clients
	We provide reliable services to customers	Customers have access to reliable three water services	Median response time to fix Water Supply service outages	60 mins (attendance for urgent call outs)	36	S	HCC
					22.8		UHCC
					25.2		PCC
					45		WCC
					0		GWRC
				4 hours (resolution of urgent call outs)	2.87	S	HCC
					3.71		UHCC
					2.08		PCC
					3.58		WCC
					0		GWRC
				36 hours (attendance for non-urgent call outs)	44.33	S	HCC
					42.7		UHCC
					66.62		PCC
					45.11		WCC
					0.50	S	GWRC
				15 days (resolution of non-urgent call outs)	2	S	HCC
					2		UHCC
					4		PCC
					3		WCC
					0.5 hrs		GWRC
			Number of wastewater blockages reported (per KM of pipe)	Less than 1.2 per km	0.58	S	HCC
					0.3		UHCC
					0.49		PCC
					0.19		WCC

95 01 March 2018

Wellington Water Committee

09 February 2018

File: (18/131)

Report no: WWC2018/1/11

Company Update Report

Purpose of Report

To give the Committee an update on issues associated with the performance of the company.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee notes and receives Wellington Water Limited’s Company Update report.

Operational Update

Waterloo Water Treatment Plant Upgrade

The Waterloo Water Treatment Plant upgrade and associated pipeline to the Hutt River has been completed. A small amount of work around the bores was completed after Christmas but overall the work was substantially complete before Christmas.

Thanks to Greater Wellington Regional Council for funding the additional scope and for Hutt City Council for facilitating the approvals necessary to construct the pipeline works through the Hutt Central Business District. In the end the pipeline was completed well before Christmas meaning the potential disruption to Christmas shoppers was avoided.

Today all the drinking water supplied to the four cities of Wellington, Hutt, Porirua and Upper Hutt meets the multi barrier requirements of the Drinking Water Standards. Further, we have reviewed the “urgent and necessary” recommendations of the Havelock North Inquiry and we can assure the Wellington Water Committee no specific additional actions need to be taken in the short term. It is our intention to deliver a new Regional Water Safety Plan by 30 June 2019 to replace individual Water Safety Pans for each council. We’ll also watch out for developing requirements for all Water Treatment operators to be certified and participate in development of a new Joint Working Group with Regional Public Health and Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Storage Lakes Full Again

After a very dry lead up to Christmas we have had a good amount of rain since. This together with low demand over the holiday period means the Stuart Mackaskill lakes are full again.

Our model predicts we are able to withstand a 1:100 year drought over the next 3 months and still have reserves in the lakes by the time summer officially finishes in April. Accordingly, we have reduced our demand controls from a full sprinkler ban back to using sprinkler on alternate days. We have supplemented this good news story with strong water conservation messages as demand must still be managed for us to maintain a sustainable supply.

Big Increase in Water Leaks

There has been a significant increase in water leaks over the last month. As we understand it, soil shrinks in the very hot conditions which put additional stresses on the pipes. If these pipes are weak, then these additional stresses will be enough to create a defect and the pipe will leak.

Additional leaks put pressures on our work crews to meet our standard response times for fixing the leaks and ensuring our customers receive continuous supply. An additional crew has been established and will work until the increased workload has cleared.

Harbour Bores Update

The second investigatory hole has been completed. The barge and drill rig have returned to port. We are now evaluating all the results from the bore and associated testing. Results will be available in April 2018.

The aquifer is thicker at the new location and the gravels appear to be in better condition which is encouraging. We will all be interested in the results when they are available.

Three Waters Strategy

Over the last 12 months we have been working on a Three Waters Strategy. This document focuses on what we need to do to meet current and future levels of service. It informs 30 year infrastructure strategies and is the first chapter of the Regional Services Plan.

A summary of the strategy is provided in Appendix 1 to the report. One of the key outputs from the strategy is a list of studies we need to do to understand and mitigate future risk or change in providing 3 waters services to customers. A list of these studies (called Future Service Strategies) is contained within the Statement of Intent.

The first Future Service Strategy to be progressed will be the “Sustainable Water Supply” strategy. There is a report within the balance of the agenda which introduces this work and the process we will use to engage with you on this topic.

Customer at the heart of what we do

Following the Scottish Water visit we set our sights on a number of initiatives to lift our customer service. One of these which was to explore a typical service request and look for improvements. We used a typical Porirua City Council (PCC) service request as an example and have worked with the PCC Service Centre to review performance. A number of improvements will now be undertaken to improve the level of service.

We do call backs to customers who have encountered council and Wellington Waters customer experience. The results indicate our service has been excellent on the whole but our communication needs more work. It is always good to get this feedback so we can concentrate on improving what we do.

Next quarter you will receive our first customer report which will summarise performance in this key result area.

Company Performance

There is no material issue with respect to the company’s performance. The Waterloo Water Treatment Plant upgrade works put a lot of pressure on the balance of our CAPEX programme but we have now got this back under control.

As usual we have provided the Three Waters and Health and Safety Dashboards as Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 to the report. Feedback from Worksafe NZ is that a lot of companies’ critical risk reporting in the health and safety area is too generic and would be unlikely to mitigate a serious harm or potentially fatal injury. The company has started reviewing all critical risks to improve our performance. We have started with Traffic Management.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Three Waters Strategy WWC	98
2 ⇩	Three Waters Dashboard	103
3 ⇩	H and S Dashboard	104

Author: External Author (Wellington Water Ltd)

^{^[1]} LTIFR Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate. The number of lost time injuries per 200,000hrs worked.

[2] TRIFR Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate. Total of all injuries per 200,000hrs worked incl. First Aid and return to work/rehabilitation cases.

[3] Whaitua means a designated space or catchment. Greater Wellington Regional Council is working closely with communities to manage land and water through Whaitua Committees.

[5] Two Lost Time Injuries (LTI’s) occurred in the first quarter and one LTI in the second quarter of 2017-18. We are in the process of reviewing the latest incident and expect the learnings to show that there are process, behavioural and cultural learnings to discuss.

[6] Hutt City Council (HCC) had one dry weather network overflow in the second quarter (October 2017) due to a local wastewater main blockage. There have been eight dry weather network overflows in WCC; five due to blockages, two due to faults in the rising main and one due to a broken air valve releasing sewerage from the rising main. All of these have been investigated and fixed.

[7] An extended dry period during quarter two has resulted in higher than normal water consumption for this time of year across the region as outdoor and peak usage has increased. Watering restrictions have been triggered much earlier than usual and we will continue to monitor and manage demand throughout the summer.

[8] Year to date average drinking water consumption for HCC is higher than the normal, following a trend in the city since April 2017. Information to date indicates that the issue is mainly related to widespread leakage in both public and private networks. The leak detection / maintenance contractors are working across the city finding the leaks and fixing them. Water restrictions are now in place due to higher summer demand and conservation promotion is underway.

[9] This measure indicates that there may be faults and limitations in the wastewater network which are impacting water quality. Investigations are continuing in a number of catchments to identify public and private network issues. Findings are being used to inform the wastewater master plan and future works programmes. Improvement of water quality outcomes will depend in part on the implementation of such works.

[10] As a result of further work since the last Statement of Intent was written we have revised the target top 20 litres per person per day. The half year result reflects progress against this new target. The 3% result was from Colmar Bunton survey July 2017 and 10.4% was from Facebook survey 17 Jan 2018.

[11] The result at half year shows we have a long way to go to achieve the target of 80% by year end. A more formal Colmar Bunton poll will be conducted for year end to obtain a clearer picture on where this measure stands.

[12] Office of Auditor General, Proposal for a performance audit on optimising demand and supply of drinking water, Memorandum to OAG Leadership Team Meeting, 5 February 2018

(A)	(B)	(C)

General subject of the matter to be considered.	Reason for passing this resolution in relation to each matter.	Ground under section 48(1) for the passing of this resolution.

Minutes of the Wellington Water Committee held on 22 November 2017 - Minor Item Not on the Agenda - Wairarapa amalgamation	The withholding of the information is to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations. (s7(2)(i).	That the public conduct of the relevant part of the proceedings of the meeting would be likely to result in the disclosure of information for which good reason for withholding exist.

Board Membership.	The withholding of the information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons. (s7(2)(a)).	That the public conduct of the relevant part of the proceedings of the meeting would be likely to result in the disclosure of information for which good reason for withholding exist.

Letter of Expectation	How we’ve addressed it	Status
Priority area 1: customer at heart and a single view of customer data and improving customer experience	We’ve bought customer to the front of the SOI so it guides everything we do We have customer metrics against each of our 3 outcomes We’ve added a cost per connection focus to increase rates transparency (value for money) We’ve introduced safety of customers around our assets and interacting within our construction works
Priority area 2: keep focused on service planning areas of growth, resilience, flooding and water quality	These are all covered in the section called Keeping the water running
Priority 3: Preparing for economic regulation	We have introduced a cost per connection and value of assets measure. Both these require us to behave more in checking with an independent regulator sitting alongside
Priority 4: Anticipating changes in government direction incl. climate change, water quality and emissions	We’ve added a new piece of work to measure and then reduce carbon emission Water quality requirements under the National Policy Statement for freshwater management are included as well as our contribution to the Natural Resources Plan. In terms of climate change our main focus remains on reducing flooding.
Allow customers and iwi to influence the regional service plan	We have the customer panel and iwi engaging in the service planning task
Regional service plan	We’ll provide this document after consultation with relevant parties and it will cover growth, resilience long term projects, household resilience, improving water quality through Whaitua and reducing impacts of flooding
Havelock North stage 2	We’ve introduced a new section called responding to change and will talk about how we are reasonably well placed for the first set of recommendations but we still have some work to do around water safety plans for example.
Non asset solutions	We’ll work with developers to encourage more water sensitive urban design and use of non-asset solutions such as hydraulic modelling. We have reflected the need for considering more non asset regionally consistent solutions where possible such as hydraulic neutrality
Cost per connection by three waters and council	We’re building the system to enable us to calculate this over the next few years.
Productivity measures	We’ve introduced a range of productivity measures across capital work, customer service and maintaining assets, consultancy panel effectiveness
Review and research international developments in three waters	We’ll ensure our Chief Advisors keep pace with international developments We have included a measure to introduce Smart Solutions

Havelock North Inquiry Stage 2 Report Recommendation	Current status	Direct or indirect impact on Wellington Water	Comment on our position
Promulgate principles of drinking water supply		Direct	We are always looking for ways to improve (ie. learning more about contaminants) but overall are probably more green than amber. Some of the six principles are in order such as multiple barriers against contamination, but others are work in progress with key stakeholders such as GWRC on protecting the drinking water source and some are about long term behavioural and cultural change. We have committed to being mindful of these principles in our new Statement of Intent.
Abolish the secure classification system		Direct	We don’t rely on secure bore water anymore.
Encourage universal treatment		Direct	We now have multiple treatment applied to drinking water.
Establish a drinking water regulator		Direct	While this is green there’s an element of unknown. We’re well positioned if a regulator comes in but it will require us to be licensed as a supplier and have appropriate certification for staff etc so could be some work in that. Drinking Water Assessors are likely to be harder on us in future and we have bit of work to so with samplers/labs. The regulator will monitor Water Safety Plan’s and ours is under review.
Interim improvements at and by the Ministry of Health		Indirect (MOH)	Unknown what MoH changes will be and what the panel of drinking water experts will do and how this could impact on us – at this stage a bit unknown.
Amend RMA to expressly recognise drinking water source protection		Indirect (GWRC)	Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) has a role to protect and manage drinking water sources but we can help by ensuring no leaks in our wastewater network for example
Accelerate NES regulations review		Indirect (GWRC)	Imposes requirements on Regional Councils to manage consent applications and compliance with Regional Plans to protect drinking water for human consumption. The implications for us are that we comply with requirements being set by GWRC. We are fully compliant with our water take and discharge consents. However we do have unconsented discharges, which we are working with GWRC on to manage, but none of these are in locations that would affect the safety of drinking water supplies. The NES requires Regional Councils to ensure that effects of activities on drinking water sources are considered in decisions on resource consents and regional plans. Specifically regional councils are required to: · decline discharge or water permits that are likely to result in community drinking water becoming unsafe for human consumption following existing treatment · be satisfied that permitted activities in regional plans will not result in community drinking water supplies being unsafe for human consumption following existing treatment · place conditions on relevant resource consents that require notification of drinking water suppliers if significant unintended events occur (eg, spills) that may adversely affect sources of human drinking water. We believe we’re fully compliant.
Encourage joint working groups		Direct	A joint working group MoU is in development and we already have good relationships.
Urgently amend the Health Act		Indirect (MOH)	Unknown – depends on what changes to the Drinking Water Standards New Zealand are required in less than 5 years - previously we’ve had 5 years to make changes required.

Table 1: Priority future service studies and business cases
Focus area	Purpose	Comments
Sustainable water supply	To address the requirement for a new water source within the next 30 years currently included in GWRC’s service plan.	Previously referred to as the ‘water demand management’ strategic case. Following a Wellington Water Committee request, we are intending to complete a strategic case by the end of June 2018 followed by a programme business case in 2018/19.
Wastewater overflow reduction	To address the wastewater overflow issues across the region and target their reduction in line with our environmental goals and GWRC’s Proposed Natural Resources Plan.	Strategic case followed by a programme business case.
Stormwater - Quality	To address the quality of stormwater and target improvements in line with our environmental goals and GWRC’s Proposed Natural Resources Plan.	Strategic case followed by a programme business case. This work will need to be closely aligned with the wastewater overflow reduction work and the stormwater flooding study below.
Stormwater - Flooding	To address the flooding risk to properties and other infrastructure across the region in line with our resilience outcome.	The stormwater modelling programme will be complete within the next three years and will provide the evidence required to justify and prioritise investment.
Sludge management	To address the sludge management challenge and impact on landfill waste operations as the region’s population grows. This work aligns well with WCC’s resilience strategy.	Strategic case followed by programme business case.
Supporting growth	National Policy Statement – Urban Development Capacity (NPS-UDC) requires councils to understand likely growth scenarios and plan for necessary infrastructure. This work will consolidate our forward planning task at a catchment level to ensure that we are aligning the regional service plan and LTP’s with anticipated growth.	This work is likely to extend over two SOI periods (6 years).
Resilient networks	This work will consolidate all our resilience planning in terms of capex investment, operational planning improvements and self-sufficiency targets for residential and critical customers.	We have made good progress in the water supply area and started improvements to address the wastewater challenges.
Smart Services	This work will provide the strategic direction for our network controls unification and Internet of Things (IoT) plan to enable smarter monitoring of the three waters network.
Carbon reduction	This study will establish a methodology for measuring carbon footprint and will identify those areas of focus, which will drive activities in the service plan. This work aligns well with central government policy direction and WCC’s carbon neutral aspirations.

Deputy Mayor D Bassett (Chair)	Hutt City Council
Mayor W Guppy	Upper Hutt City Council
Mayor M Tana	Porirua City Council
Cr I Pannett	Wellington City Council
Cr J Brash	Greater Wellington Regional Council
Cr D K Ogden	Greater Wellington Regional Council (Alternate)
Mayor WR Wallace	Hutt City Council (Alternate)
Cr R Leggett	Porirua City Council (Alternate)
Cr G McArthur	Upper Hutt City Council (Alternate)
Cr P Gilberd	Wellington City Council (Alternate)