Volume One 15. Resource Quality (Water, Air, Soil) 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 aim is to maintain an attribute state of A for secondary contact recreation in each FMU. Where water quality in the FMU does not currently meet an attribute state of A, the aim is to enhance water quality to meet this state. The numeric attribute states for A are specified in Objective 15.1d. 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. [RPS, R] Objective 15.1e – Maintain or enhance freshwater water quality in waterbodies valued for primary contact recreation so that the 95 percentile th E. c oli level is <540 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. E. ciol bacteria are determined to be an attribute of the suitability of the water for contact recreation under the NPSFM. Some of Marlborough’s rivers, or specific sites in those rivers, are valued by the community for swimming. (These values of Marlborough’s rivers are identified in Appendix 5 of the MEP.) The majority of these rivers/sites have an attribute state of “B” for primary contact recreation. 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 aim is to maintain an attribute state of B for these rivers. Where water quality in the river does not currently meet an attribute state of B and it is reasonable to expect swimming to occur in the river, the aim is to enhance water quality to meet this state. The numeric attribute states for B are specified in Objective 15.1e. 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. All of the following policies collectively seek to achieve Objectives 15.1a to 15.1e. Management purpose [RPS, R, C] Policy 15.1.1 – As a minimum, the quality of freshwater and coastal waters will be managed so that they are suitable for the following purposes: (a) Coastal waters: protection of marine ecosystems; potential for contact recreation and food gathering/marine farming; and for cultural and aesthetic purposes; (b) Rivers and lakes: protection of aquatic ecosystems; potential for contact recreation; community water supply (where water is already taken for this purpose); and for cultural and aesthetic purposes; (c) Groundwater: drinking water supply; and (d) Wetlands: protection of aquatic ecosystems and the potential for food gathering. This policy establishes a minimum expectation of water quality in Marlborough’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers and coastal waters. The policy will be primarily implemented through the application of water quality classifications, against which the impact of point source discharges on water quality can be assessed in the preparation of permitted activity rules and the consideration of resource consent applications. The use of “potential” in the criteria reflects a community expectation that contact recreation and/or food gathering should always be able to be undertaken 15 – 9