New regulations have been made setting out environmental performance standards for wastewater discharges. The Water Services (Wastewater Environmental Performance Standards) Regulations 2025 (Standards) were published on Thursday 20 November and will be in force on 19 December 2025 (except for Reg 8 and Part 2). 

The Standards will have a significant impact on wastewater treatment plant and network operators, and will change regulatory processes under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The Standards prevail over plan rules and modify resource consent processing requirements. Given the Standards’ prescriptive requirements for the quality and processes of wastewater discharges, wastewater treatment plant operators in particular should be assessing the Standards’ impact on their operation and reconsenting options (where applicable). 

This update explains what the Standards are, why they have been introduced, what happens to activities that are subject to the Standards, and how they affect existing wastewater networks. 

Why is there a need for the Standards?

Given the shared characteristics of wastewater treatment plants, nationally set Standards are intended to simplify the consenting process for wastewater network operators. The Government hopes that a uniform consenting pathway will save cost and time for wastewater network operators. 

In particular, the Standards respond to the following issues for New Zealand’s wastewater infrastructure:

• Aging infrastructure: There are 334 publicly owned wastewater plants in New Zealand, most of which were built 30 - 40 years ago and require upgrade.
• Reconsenting challenges: Over the next decade, 57% of consents for wastewater treatment plants will come up for renewal, with expired consents already making up 21% of wastewater treatment plant consents. 
• Potential for efficiencies: The current system for consenting wastewater treatment plants is case-by-case, time intensive, costly and subject to uncertainties. 
• Transparency: Better information and stronger monitoring of how wastewater networks are performing around the country is crucial to protect public health and the environment.

What do the Standards do?

The Standards change the resource consenting process for wastewater treatment plants and networks. Changes include: 

• Reduction of notification obligations: The Standards specify a controlled activity status for many wastewater network activities, which generally precludes public notification.
• More standardised consent conditions: Consent authorities are required to impose the conditions from the Standards. The Standards specify conditions for each consent type and narrow consent authorities’ discretion in setting conditions, with mandatory conditions for some activities. 
• Extended duration: Activities that meet the Standards’ requirements benefit from a default consent duration of 35 years.
• Bypassing s 107 RMA restrictions: Activities that comply with the Standards are able to bypass the section 107 restrictions on the grant of discharge and coastal permits likely to give rise to certain effects in receiving waters.
• Reporting requirements: Consent holders are subject to extensive monitoring and reporting requirements.
• Limit on time to operate under an existing consent: Where a reconsenting application is made in the time required in section 124 of the RMA, and after 19 December 2028 the operation under the expired consent will only be allowed for 2 years. 

In terms of the technical content of the standards, these provide permitted activity conditions, activity status, and matters of discretion for the following activities, as described further in the table below:

• Discharge of biosolids to land;
• Overflows from wastewater networks;
• Bypasses of wastewater treatment plants;
• Discharge from wastewater treatment plants into water;
• Discharge from wastewater treatment plants to land.

Activity	Application
Discharging biosolids to land	The Standards apply to the:  discharge of biosolids to land if: the biosolids result from treating wastewater in a wastewater treatment plant; and the discharge is for the purposes of fertilising, or improving the condition of, the soil, any odour resulting from that discharge; and  the effects of the contaminants in that discharge on the environment and public health.    The Standard adopts a risk-based matrix categorising biosolids by their contaminant and stabilisation grades. Biosolids that are contaminant grade 1 and stabilisation grade A can be discharged to land as a permitted activity provided they satisfy extensive permitted activity conditions. The Standards also provide controlled and discretionary activity pathways where those conditions cannot be met.
Overflows and bypasses (these provisions come into force on 19 December 2028)	Overflows: The Standards apply to the discharge of wastewater from an engineered (new and existing) or uncontrolled overflow point to land or into water, any odour resulting from that discharge and the effects of that discharge on the environment and public health. With the exception of new engineered overflow points, the Standards specify that these are controlled activities.  Bypasses: The Standards apply to the discharge of wastewater to land or into water from a bypass of publicly owned wastewater treatment plant, any odour resulting from that discharge, the effects of that discharge on the environment and public health. The Standards specify that these are a controlled activity.
Discharging wastewater into water	Activity: The Standards apply to the discharge of treated wastewater into water from a publicly owned wastewater treatment plant that is part of a publicly owned wastewater treatment network and the effects of the contaminants in that discharge on the environment and public health, subject to exceptions. The Standards provide separate limits and conditions depending on where the water is being discharged: rivers, lakes, estuaries, low-energy coastal water, high-energy coastal water and the open ocean. Rivers are further broken down by dilution ratio (high, moderate, low and very low dilution) and substrate. Notably, the Standards now include discharges into very low dilution environments, unlike the original proposal in Taumata Arowai’s consultation document. This is a significant change for wastewater treatment plants that discharge treated wastewater into artificial channels or other waterways where most of the flow comes from the wastewater discharge. The Standards do not specify an activity status for discharging wastewater into water. It is to be confirmed how this will play out.
Discharging wastewater to land	The Standards apply to the discharge of treated wastewater to land from a publicly owned wastewater treatment plant that is part of a publicly owned wastewater network and the effects of the contaminants in that discharge on the environment and public health, subject to exceptions. The Standards do not specify the activity status for discharging wastewater to land. A risk-based matrix is adopted, whereby resource consent applications must include a site assessment that assigns a land class and determines the risk assessment category to assign an overall site classification category.

How are existing wastewater networks and wastewater treatment plants affected?

For some operators, complying with the water quality levels in the Standards may prove onerous and will necessitate upgrading their wastewater treatment plants. We understand this is an intended outcome of the Standards. The Standards provide that small wastewater treatments plants that existed before 19 December 2025 have their own requirements under the new Standards.

The Local Government (Water Services) (Repeals and Amendments) Act 2025 recently made changes to the RMA by extending the expiry dates of extant wastewater consents until 27 August 2028, with pathways available for further extensions in exceptional circumstances.

For wastewater network operators with longer to run on their existing consents, a consent review under section 128 of the RMA could potentially be used to bring the discharge into compliance with the Standards. It will therefore be important for all operators to have a clear picture of what the Standards require.

Get in touch

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about what this may mean for you.

Special thanks to Charlie Sleigh and Tanmeet Singh for their assistance in writing this article.