Minister outlines bleak future for Lake Taupo

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE and JO MARIE BROWN

The condition of Lake Taupo will get worse before it gets better, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs warned yesterday.

"This is a beautiful lake but we might lose it," she said during a visit to Taupo with Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton.

The deterioration visible now was the result of activities 40 years ago and it would be another 40 years before the effects of today's uses became obvious, Ms Hobbs said.

A Herald investigation revealed the crisis in the central North Island lakes and the Government is now under pressure to find a solution.

The ministers spent the day with partners in the new Lake Taupo protection plan, which includes Environment Waikato, Taupo District Council and Tuwharetoa.

The project involves several agencies working together to change land use in the catchment area in an effort to cut the amount of nitrogen entering the lake by 20 per cent over the next 15 years.

Ms Hobbs said there were various approaches which had to be worked on, such as an end to dairy farming and fewer stock per hectare.

The ministers stressed the Government was prepared "to bear its fair share of the burden" of cleaning up the lake.

"We have made no decision about the total figure or how it will be divided," Ms Hobbs said.

Mr Sutton was more optimistic about the future of Lake Taupo, saying its water quality was "not too bad".

"We believe the action we take now will be in time."

He also hoped the target of reducing nitrogen by 20 per cent could be reached in less than six years.

Mr Sutton said it might not necessarily be a case of getting rid of dairy farms in the catchment, but of people voluntarily stopping conversions now they realised the consequences to the environment.

"Naturally they do not want to be seen fouling the lake."

But farmers should not be cast as villains, he said. Past changes had been made in the belief that they were environmentally friendly.

"Now we all know more about it, we all realise we have to start doing everything differently," he said.

A $13 million research project over the next six years would develop new technologies and better land-use practices which, hopefully, could then be applied to other lakes.

A draft partnership strategy for cleaning up Lake Taupo is expected to be released in November.

* A scientist from Western Australia has been hired to help save Rotorua's sick lakes.

The Ministry for the Environment announced yesterday that Dr Bruce Hamilton has been appointed on a short-term contract to help advise Rotorua's local and regional councils on how to manage the algal blooms which now routinely appear in the district's lakes.

The blooms' presence during summer makes the water unsafe for swimming or drinking and destroys fish habitat.

Dr Hamilton's appointment was made after a report was presented to Ms Hobbs which said there was a chance algal blooms would kill all life in Lake Rotoiti this summer.

He will make his first visit to Rotorua this weekend to meet regional representatives, and Professor David Hamilton from Waikato University who is already working to restore the lakes' health.