The Government proposal to restore the health of New Zealand's waterways may restrict community involvement in the contested future management of the lower Waiau River.

Last week, the government announced its proposed Action Plan for Healthy Waterways with the aim of restoring New Zealand's rivers and lakes within a generation.

However, within the fine print lies an exemption that a Western Southland community group says will do the opposite for the once mighty lower Waiau River, effectively serving its "death sentence".

Waiau Rivercare Group committee member Claire Jordan said the draft National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management would exempt six major hydroelectric schemes from the quality standards that would apply to every other body of freshwater in the county — Meridian Energy's Manapouri Power Scheme is one of them. 

However, Ms Jordan said the Manapouri scheme was unique on several counts. 

While most schemes return water to their catchment, the Manapouri scheme diverts up to 95% of the water taken from the Waiau River and discharges it in Doubtful Sound. 

With the lower section of the river's flow significantly cut off for around the last 50 years, the group says there has already been a "massive" environmental impact on the river and Te Waewae lagoon.

"For two generations, we have been dealing with whatever has been thrown at us by those in power," Ms Jordan said. 

Now the mandatory bottom line, that is, the tools to maintain the river's swimmability and ecological health, would not be applied to the Waiau Catchment. 

"It's unique nationally," Ms Jordan said of the scheme.

"And the problem is, because it is so great and because it's been protected by this National Policy Statement, it completely exempts the opportunity to consider whether water might be allocated for anything else — for in-stream values or for other uses out of stream."

The draft proposal says regional councils like Environment Southland must regard the importance of not adversely impacting the generation capacity of a scheme like Manapouri's when it sets limits or develop action plans.

Furthermore, regional councils may accordingly set "target attribute states" that fell below national bottom lines when it came to water bodies adversely impacted by hydroelectricity schemes.

The exemptions for the six hydroschemes are also strongly opposed by the Te Kahui Wai Māori advisory group to Essential Freshwater programme. 

The group told Environment Minister David Parker earlier this year the proposal was "a serious risk to our major rivers" and "completely undermines the Essential Freshwater objective to stop further degradation and loss." 

Ms Jordan also argued the lower Waiau Community would have to shoulder the regulatory burden of dealing with the environmental effects of the Manapouri Power Scheme. 

While it was still unclear to the group exactly what the resulting regulation might look like, Ms Jordan said the more more water Meridian took out of the river, the more the community would have to reduce its activities to compensate, such as farming and tourism.

The group is already in the midst of ongoing legal discussions in Environment Court to appeal sections of the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan regarding the scheme.

Now it would be calling on Government to remove the exemption for the Manapouri Power Scheme from the draft statement. 

"The key message is that our community is committed to improving the health of our waterway, of the Waiau River, but we cannot do it alone. And we cannot do it without the rules applying to Meridian," Ms Jordan said. 

"All we're asking for is to give us a chance to have that conversation."

Public consultation meetings were held last night (September 11) in Invercargill and this morning (September 12) in Winton. The Ministry for the Environment said this morning the Winton meeting exceeded capacity, and that it would come back to the region at a later date.

The deadline for submissions on the proposed Action Plan for Healthy Waterways is October 17. For further information, visit https://www.mfe.govt.nz/consultation/action-for-healthy-waterways