Dairy cows north of Dannevirke, one of the areas affected by the Environment Court's ruling on Horizons Regional Council's One Plan. Photo / Duncan Brown
Dairy cows north of Dannevirke, one of the areas affected by the Environment Court's ruling on Horizons Regional Council's One Plan. Photo / Duncan Brown
At a strategy and policy committee meeting on Tuesday, Horizons regional councillors asked council staff to begin a programme of both short and longer-term One Plan changes to address nutrient management consenting issues for dairy farmers while maintaining freshwater management progress.
Horizons Regional Council chairman Bruce Gordon said inthe short term the council was looking for smaller, less complex plan change options which would allow it to continue the process of consenting farms for intensive land uses.
"This process seeks to reduce nutrient loads entering waterways. Whether these short-term options are viable will be the subject of intense investigation in the coming months," Mr Gordon said.
"In the longer term, council has directed officers to start the process of catchment by catchment studies to ensure our approach in the One Plan is consistent with the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM).
"While a recent Ministry for the Environment report has highlighted Horizons has given effect to most of the NPS-FM, there is still work to do on aligning objectives, limit settings and interventions.
"Managing freshwater is a complex environmental, cultural, social and economic challenge and the answers to continued improvement lie in working across all of these fields.
"Although 95 per cent of the One Plan has been successfully implemented, rules and policies for intensive agriculture have been particularly challenging.
"However, it is important to note that good progress has been made around the region in improving water quality, and council is committed to continuing to build on these successes."
The Horizons region has seen significant progress in improving water quality, with largely positive or stable trends across its catchments.
Water-quality trends from January 2006 to December 2015 indicated that 58 per cent of 36 monitored sites for total oxidised nitrogen (TON) showed improvement and none was in decline.
These monitored sites have recently been increased to more than 70, which will allow for even more in-depth data to help inform future decision-making and where Horizons can best target its work programmes.
"Like last summer, we are also monitoring over 80 swim spot sites," Mr Gordon said.
"This summer monitoring programme not only helps our communities to make informed decisions about where and when to swim, but also informs our science and freshwater programmes.
"Through regulatory and non-regulatory means, our council is committed to improving freshwater for everybody in our region to enjoy."
