Canterbury Regional Council - Geographic Coverage and Responsibilities

Geographic Coverage and Responsibilities

Its main office is in Christchurch with smaller offices in Timaru and Kaikoura. The area of its jurisdiction consists of all the river catchments on the east coast of the South Island from the Clarence River, north of Kaikoura, to the Waitaki River, in South Canterbury. The region includes the Canterbury Plains, north and south Canterbury, the major braided rivers of the South Island, (the Waimakariri River, the Rakaia River and the Rangitata River) the Mackenzie Basin and the Waitaki River.

The Canterbury Regional Council is responsible for a wide variety of functions including public passenger transport, regional biosecurity, river engineering, environmental monitoring and investigations, regional policy and planning and for considering applications for certain resource consents - land use consents (including beds of waterbodies), coastal permits, water permits, and discharge permits. Canterbury Regional Council has strategic responsibilities for air, water and transport.

Christchurch often has temperature inversions which trap pollutants causing air quality issues. Ecan set up the Clean Heat Project in 2002 and it ran until 2011 to assist with cleaner burning home heating and extra home insulation.