A look at the Christchurch production plant of Cloud Ocean Estate water bottling. (Video first published in November 2018)

Opponents of commercial water bottling on the outskirts of Christchurch say a High Court decision is "fantastic news" for the city's water supply.

Justice Peter Churchman has determined old industrial resource consents for a wool scour and freezing works at Belfast do not allow for large-scale water bottling operations by Cloud Ocean Water and Rapaki Natural Resources.

Environment Canterbury (ECan), which had argued that commercial bottling was an industrial use and therefore permitted under the current consents, says it is standing by its decision to grant them.

DAVID WALKER/STUFF Cloud Ocean Estate's water production plant at Belfast, north of Christchurch.

Both companies are playing down the ruling.

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Campaigners Aotearoa Water Action (AWA) said the High Court judgment could open a can of worms when it comes to companies across Canterbury using old consents for operations.

DOMINIC HARRIS/STUFF A protester writes messages against water bottling on the pavement outside Environment Canterbury's Christchurch office while councillors inside vote to approve an independent commissioner to decide whether an application by Cloud Ocean Water should be publicly notified or not.

AWA took its claim that ECan had failed to follow proper processes to the High Court in October.

The consents, transferred from previous businesses on the sites, allow the two firms to take 8.8 billion litres of water a year – about 24 million litres a day. ECan accepted the consent transfer last year.

ECan-appointed independent commissioner Richard Fowler QC, is due to decide by the end of Thursday whether Cloud Ocean's request to take water from a deep bore should be publicly notified.

DAVID WALKER/STUFF The High Court has determined old industrial consents should not be used for Cloud Ocean Estate's water bottling operation at Belfast.

AWA spokesman Peter Richardson said the court decision was "fantastic".

"It pulls the rug out from under the feet of people who want to just rely on old industrial consents."

Cloud Ocean Water said it was not using the consent originally granted to Kaputone Wool Scour (1994) Ltd* but had been granted a new water bottling consent in December 2017. Rapaki Natural Resources holds two consents granted to the Primary Producers Co-operative Society Ltd (PPCS).

In his decision, the judge said in all three cases, "commercial water bottling is not within the scope of resource consent".

The issue in question was the meaning of "industrial use" and whether bottling of water for export fells within that definition, he said.

ECan general counsel Catherine Schache​ said the determination was one part of a dual challenge and "related only to a preliminary point of law". The second part was whether ECan processes in granting consent were in accordance with the Resource Management Act.

"We stand by our decision to grant the consents. The decision has no bearing on whether Cloud Ocean and Rapaki Natural Resources can continue to use their consents.

"The implications of this whole court proceeding won't be known until after the hearing on our processes, which will be next year."

Richardson said the decision paved the way for those hearings.

"We never believed you can simply take old industrial consents issued for a different purpose and convert them to water bottling, when the effects of the activity are so clearly different.

"We also know ECan has issued consents previously, just on the basis that an industrial consent had been authorised before. That will leave some companies who have applied on that proposition feeling a little bit nervous."

The decision also showed up the fallacy that the "wisdom lies in the big decision-makers, the ECans of this world, the Government", he said.

A Cloud Ocean spokeswoman said the decision did not affect the validity of the company's current consent.

Rapaki Natural Resources director Phillip Burmester​ said he would wait to see what came out of the main hearings next year before commenting.

The Christchurch City Council has been pushing for more public input into consents to take water from aquifers. It wants ECan to make urgent changes to its Land And Water Regional Plan.

Consenting and compliance general manager Leonie Rae said the council was reviewing the High Court decision.

Councillor Vicki Buck, who has said it was "crazy" others across the city held old consents to take water and could make a similar application to start a commercial bottling venture, was "absolutely delighted" with the ruling.