Wairau/ Awatere Resource Management Plan 1 July 2011 b) a change or increase in any discharge – of any contaminant into fresh water, or onto or into land in circumstances that may result in that contaminant (or, as a result of any natural process from the discharge of that contaminant, any other contaminant) entering fresh water. 3. This policy does not apply to any application for consent first lodged before the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management takes effect on 1 July 2011. 7.0 Water Quantity 1. When considering any application the consent authority must have regard to the following matters: a) the extent to which the change would adversely affect safeguarding the life- supporting capacity of fresh water and of any associated ecosystem and b) the extent to which it is feasible and dependable that any adverse effect on the life-supporting capacity of fresh water and of any associated ecosystem resulting from the change would be avoided. 2. This policy applies to: a) any new activity and b) any change in the character, intensity or scale of any established activity – that involves any taking, using, damming or diverting of fresh water or draining of any wetland which is likely to result in any more than minor adverse change in the natural variability of flows or level of any fresh water, compared to that which immediately preceded the commencement of the new activity or the change in the established activity (or in the case of a change in an intermittent or seasonal activity, compared to that on the last occasion on which the activity was carried out). 3. This policy does not apply to any application for consent first lodged before the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management takes effect on 1 July 2011. 6 - 18