This paper presents a water management case study from New Zealand’s South Island region of Canterbury. It explains how historically in-conflict interest and community groups were brought together in the region of the Hurunui Waiau to deliberate on where to set resource limits on land use to manage water quality. It will be argued that the apparent success of the collaborative process in gaining agreement on water quality objectives had to forego a deeper understanding of the social and political context of the region, with problematic implications for implementation. This case study highlights the potential strengths of decentralised environmental governance practices in gaining alignment on common goals but also the challenges they present in translating those goals into on-ground action.