Swimmers jump from the pontoon at Tikitapu (Blue Lake). Photo / File
Swimmers jump from the pontoon at Tikitapu (Blue Lake). Photo / File
Bay of Plenty farmers say they have been "thrown under the tractor" by the Government's biggest water quality reforms proposed in almost 30 years, but the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Chair in Lake and Freshwater Sciences and Te Arawa Lakes Trust welcome them.
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor and EnvironmentMinister David Parker unveiled plans for a swathe of major changes last week, aiming to quickly halt the degradation of freshwater, improve conditions within five years and fix them in a "generation".
"If we don't fix things now they only get worse and will be more expensive to fix," Parker said.
Environment Minister David Parker. Photo / File
However, the Action for Healthy Waterways plans put additional cost pressures on New Zealand farmers, including $600 million for stream fencing and other stock exclusion measures (not including riparian planting).
This single requirement would cost, on average, $87,000 for a 125ha dairy farm in the Bay of Plenty or Waikato areas, the discussion document said.
View of Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island from above Kawaha Point. Photo / File
However, it said the widespread changes proposed would avoid costs of restoring the 14 Rotorua lakes in future, would preserve and improve the recreational value and avoid human health risks.
Paengaroa-based Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers president Darryl Jensen said the plans "will be very difficult to implement in the short time frame, we have been thrown under the tractor, so to speak".
"We are addressing environmental issues, and going a long way to put in good practices, but this is lumping it on us all at once which will come at a horrendous cost."
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen on his Paengaroa dairy farm. Photo / File
The Ministry for the Environment is holding public consultation meetings on the proposals in Tauranga, Rotorua and Whakatāne from September 16 to 19 and Jensen planned to attend.
Te Arawa Lakes Trust chairman Toby Curtis said he was pleased the plan upheld Te Mana o te Wai, with a holistic approach to the mana and mauri of waters.
He also said making mahinga kai (food gathering) statuses compulsory would be important for protecting Te Arawa customary fisheries in freshwater.
Trust chief executive Karen Vercoe said plans to better protect wetlands were also important for Te Arawa.
"They filter nutrients from our lakes, can be active carbon sinks if they are undisturbed, and they are places where our kuta (native plants) thrive ... Wetlands and swamps also play an important role in protecting other waterways from the impact of heavy rainfall, while others are actually urupā, which cannot be disturbed."
Department of Conservation staff at Lake Tarawera. Photo / File
The trust is preparing a submission on the Action for Healthy Waterways document.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff and councillors will also prepare a submission by October 17, after holding meetings early next month to discuss the freshwater proposals with tangata whenua and the wider community.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman in Lake and Freshwater Sciences, Professor Troy Baisden. Photo / Supplied
Bay of Plenty Regional Council Chair in Lake and Freshwater Sciences, Professor Troy Baisden, said water was a significant issue in the previous election and the new plans reflected that.
"If we trade internationally on our reputation for a healthy environment, continued degradation of water fouls both the value of our main exports and our heritage."
He said overall, the discussion document "makes a halt to the worst forms of degradation the default, rather than an item on an underfunded to-do list".
What is proposed?
The technical group advising the Government said less than half of the country's 16 regional councils had set nutrient limits in some catchments using current rules, and that the existing "bottom lines" weren't good enough.
Much of the debate about river quality has centred on the effects of nitrates coming from growing and intensifying dairy farming in recent decades - along with pollution from sewage and urban growth.
The proposals restrict further intensification of rural land, putting the brakes on some development, from June next year.
Dairy conversions over 210ha or irrigation schemes would only go ahead if they could prove they wouldn't increase pollution.
The restrictions would stay in place until at least 2025, by when regional councils would have to have new rules in place based on a new "National Policy Statement".
