Winemakers in Marlborough are working with the district council to seek exemption for water chlorination at one site serving 10 vineyards and 30 homes. Photo: 123rf
Marlborough's wine sector wants its water supply to be exempt from chlorination to protect wine production in the home of sauvignon blanc, and warns water reticulation rules will affect the wider industry.
New Zealand's public water supplies are required to use residual disinfection, most commonly chlorine, unless an exemption is sought from regulator the Water Services Authority Taumata Arowai.
Chlorine is used in drinking water supplies to kill pathogens that may enter the water after treatment to keep drinking water safe for consumption.
Five out of seven of Marlborough's water supplies are chlorinated, with the one remaining in Blenheim set to be chlorinated when two dosing plants are constructed by late July.
The other remaining was the Riverlands and Cloudy Bay Industrial Estates, an area which was home to around 10 wineries and vineyards, and 30 homes.
In wine production, even small amounts of chlorine used to clean wine tanks, for example, could taint the wine by reacting with a specific fungus, causing a corked effect that impacts smell and flavour.
Wine Marlborough, also known as the Marlborough Winegrowers Association, presented the risks it said chlorination posed to the wine industry to the Marlborough District Council and Taumata Arowai in December.
Submissions were heard this week on the Local Government (Water Services) Bill, the third part of the Government's Local Water Done Well policy.
Wine Marlborough advocacy manager Ruth Berry told the Finance and Expenditure subcommitte this week, water reticulation posed significant risks to the wine industry.
"Residual disinfection in the reticulated water supply, which is achieved through chlorination, poses a significant risk to more than 50 percent of New Zealand's wine production," Berry said.
"To put that in some context, that represents approximately $1.2 billion in export earnings per annum, and a significant portion of the $290 million paid in wine excise per annum.
"We consider that the impact and cost of compliance with the residual disinfection requirements is disproportionate to the scale, complexity and risk profile of what is essentially an industrial water supply with very few residential households."
Berry said vineyards in the area were unable to get around the chlorination by using private supplies, as others could.
"It's specific here in that we have a such a concentration of wineries in one place," she said.
"Most [other] wineries are in a rural location, and they're able to sink a bore or something similar and excess unchlorinated water. That's not an option for us because there isn't a suitable groundwater source available.
"And even if we could use the the groundwater that was there, it's over allocated by the Council already, so it's just not an option for us to tap into it."
The district council was supporting the move to file an exemption application for the one water supply with the regulator in the coming months.
In its submission on the Local Government (Water Services) Bill in late February, it suggested a 20-30 year exemption period for the one water supply site with five-yearly compliance checks as opposed to the standard five-year exemption period.
"Council considers a five-year term for an application requiring the complexity and investment to provide a safe water from an unchlorinated supply does not match the investment required," it said in the submission, signed by Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor and council chief executive John Boswell.
"All wineries faced with a chlorinated water supply will be challenged with the de-chlorination necessary to eliminate the risks chlorine poses to wine production," it said.
Taumata Arowai has not yet received an exemption application from Wine Marlborough or the Marlborough District Council.
The regulator had previously rejected exemption applications from the Christchurch City Council Christchurch City Council, Wellington Water and Waimakariri District Council for Cust among others.
However, applications were successful at more than 680 Department of Conservation sites where it was unpractical to treat water and carry out regular testing, and at the Rakaia Huts in the Selwyn district.
Marlborough's wine sector has grown by 300 percent since 2000. It produces about 80 percent of the country's wine exports and employs 20 percent of the jobs in the region.
