$85 million proposal launched to protect Lake Taupo

1.00pm - By JO-MARIE BROWN and NZPA

Environment Waikato wants to spend $83.5 million to protect Lake Taupo by reducing the amount of nitrogen entering the lake by 20 per cent.

The regional council's chairman, Neil Clarke, told about 70 guests who attended this morning's launch of the council's Protecting Lake Taupo strategy at the Taupo Yacht Club, that he believed most New Zealanders would be happy to contribute financially.

Environment Waikato estimates the changes will cost $83.5 million to implement over the next 15 years, although it is not yet clear whether most of that money will come from taxpayers or the local community.

The plan says that scientific evidence shows the health of Lake Taupo is declining as a result of increased nitrogen flowing from surrounding rural and urban land.

"Nitrogen feeds the growth of tiny algae. More algae reduces water clarity. If left unchecked, these changes could be difficult to reverse."

More intensive use of land surrounding the lake and urban growth had increased the amount of nitrogen in the lake, the strategy says.

Nitrogen from the effluent of 1.5 million sheep, cows and deer, farmed near the lake, seeps into the water.

The element is branded one of the primary causes of deteriorating lake health. It is blamed for problems with weeds and slime growth.

Environment Waikato believes up to 40 per cent of 1250 tonnes of nitrogen entering the water each year comes from farms. It wants to reduce volume by 20 per cent, or 250kg, over the next 15 years.

A range of planning, economic and lifestyle measures were recommended to reduce nitrogen outputs. They include:

- Higher environmental standards for urban development.

- Upgrading sewerage schemes.

- Changing farm management systems.

- New ways of using rural land which produce low nitrogen levels.

- Conducting research into alternative low-nitrogen land use.

The public has until January to make submissions on the report, before changes are made to the regional plan in July.

Mr Clarke said he did not anticipate any taxpayer backlash on what the council was proposing to do.

"There are many people who have had the opportunity to visit Taupo and appreciate what an icon we have here," he said.

Taupo's mayor Clayton Stent said locals would have to accept that changing land use was going to cost everyone money but he said the Taupo District Council was working hard to ensure that a fair and equitable funding system was agreed upon.

While the finer details of the strategy will now be debated, some groups are already unhappy with what is being proposed.

Any future restrictions on the amount of nitrogen allowed to leach of individual properties means that forestry owners will not be able to change their land use in future.

Lake Taupo and Lake Rotoaira forest trusts spokesman Geoff Thorp said forestry already produced a low amount of nitrogen and it was unfair to lock them into that particular form of land use forever more.

"The solutions they've come up with are not polluter-pays solutions," he said.

Farming lobby group Taupo Lake Care is also opposed to any nitrogen cap as it would make pastoral farming uneconomic.

Spokeswoman Sue Yerex said people had invested time and money into developing their properties, and a nitrogen cap would cost farmers up to $175 million in lost opportunities over the next 10 years.