Public warned of watershed moment

Hawke's Bay is facing a "watershed" year in 2012 as authorities prepare to make big decisions about the quality of our waterways.

The warning was delivered to a 200-strong crowd at last night's Hawke's Bay Water Forum at Lindisfarne College.

Fresh from a rafting trip down the Tukituki River yesterday afternoon, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the region's rivers were not unlike many across the country suffering due to land use intensification and an "enormous jump" in fertiliser use.

"These have downstream environmental impacts like the loss of native bush and a decline in biodiversity," Mr Norman said.

"We live in a real world with biophysical limits."

He said his information was sourced from Niwa, "not from crazy greenies".

The farming sector, he said, needed to stop attacking "good science".

Fellow panelist, Central Hawke's Bay farmer Hugh Ritchie, said the Bay was poised to face some "tough decisions", and backed water storage as one option. "There are issues with certain catchments and some farming systems need to evolve," Mr Ritchie said.

Yet rather than targeting all dairy, cropping or stock farmers, he said authorities should concentrate on anyone who breached their water take.

Local blogger and publisher, Tom Belford, one of the forum's five panelists, said Hawke's Bay Regional Council was poised to deliver policy that would dictate "how the region manages water for years to come".

"2012 is going to be a watershed year for water policy in this region," Mr Belford said. "It will effect how the region manages water for decades to come."

Council had historically favoured the region's economic wellbeing over the environment, he said. "Their stance seems to be how much can we afford the environment to interfere with productivity. This needs to be turned on its head."

Other panelists were iwi adviser Morry Black and Hawke's Bay Regional Council chief scientist Graham Sevicke-Jones.

The panelists answered many questions from the audience. Fisherman John Scott applauded the presence of the sole regional councillor Liz Remerswaal but criticised the absence of her fellow councillors.

"They're the key thing that's missing from tonight's forum - they're the policy makers."

Election candidates for Hawke's Bay electorates also addressed the forum.