15. Resource Quality (Water, Air, Soil) Volume One This objective ensures that the Council’s responsibilities are fulfilled in terms of maintaining and enhancing the quality of the environment and safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of water. Te Hauora o te Wai/the health and mauri of water [RPS, R] Objective 15.1b – Maintain or enhance freshwater water quality in each Freshwater Management Unit so that the annual median nitrate concentration is <1 milligram nitrate-nitrogen per litre and the annual 95 th percentile concentration is <1.5 milligrams nitrate-nitrogen per litre, as measured by the Council’s State of the Environment monitoring programme. The NPSFM identifies ecosystem health as a compulsory national value of freshwater. Under the NPSFM for rivers, nitrate concentrations are determined to be an attribute of ecosystem health. The majority of Marlborough’s rivers that are monitored have an attribute state of “A” for nitrate and the community has a strong desire to maintain or enhance Marlborough’s existing water quality. This is also the aim of Objective A2 of the NPSFM. For this reason, and having considered the matters set out in (f) of Policy CA2 of the NPSFM, the objective is to maintain an attribute state of A for nitrate in each FMU. Where water quality in the FMU does not currently meet an attribute state of A, the objective is to enhance water quality to meet this state. The numeric attribute states for A are specified in Objective 15.1b. The FMUs relevant to this objective are in Freshwater Management Unit - Map 5. The process set in Policy CA2 of the NPSFW has been used to formulate this objective. [RPS, R] Objective 15.1c – Maintain freshwater water quality in each Freshwater Management Unit so that the annual median ammonia concentration is <0.03 milligrams ammoniacal nitrogen per litre and the annual maximum concentration is <0.05 milligrams ammoniacal nitrogen per litre, as measured by the Council’s State of the Environment monitoring programme. The NPSFM identifies ecosystem health as a compulsory national value of freshwater. Ammonia concentrations are determined to be an attribute of ecosystem health under the NPSFM for rivers. All of Marlborough’s rivers that are monitored have an attribute state of “A” for ammonia. The community has a strong desire to maintain or enhance Marlborough’s existing water quality and Objective A2 of the NPSFM requires this to occur. For this reason, and having considered the matters set out in (f) of Policy CA2 of the NPSFM, the objective is to maintain an attribute state of A for ammonia in each FMU. The numeric attribute states for A are specified in Objective 15.1c. The FMUs relevant to this objective are in Freshwater Management Unit - Map 5. The process set in Policy CA2 of the NPSFM has been used to formulate this objective. Te Hauora o te Tangata/the health and mauri of the people [RPS, R] Objective 15.1d – Maintain or enhance freshwater water quality in each Freshwater Management Unit so that the annual median E. coli level is <260 per 100 ml, as measured by the Council’s State of the Environment monitoring programme. The NPSFM identifies human heath for recreation as a national value of freshwater and secondary contact recreation as a compulsory national value of freshwater. Secondary contact recreation is activity that involves occasional immersion and some ingestion of water, such as boating or wading. The NPSFM has determined that Escheria coli (E. coli) bacteria are to be an attribute of the suitability of the water for contact recreation. The majority of Marlborough’s rivers that are monitored have an attribute state of “A” for secondary contact recreation. The community 15 – 8