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ORC accepts hearing panel recommendations on water quality

MEDIA RELEASE


March 28, 2013

ORC accepts hearing panel recommendations on water quality plan change

The Otago Regional Council yesterday accepted its hearing panel’s recommendations for Plan Change 6A to the Otago Water Plan.

The recommendations offer farmers flexibility and practical transition times to improve rural water quality where this is necessary, and outline the discharge quality they will need to achieve to comply with the plan.

ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said the panel had worked diligently to assess the public submissions and thoroughly review the proposed policy.

The thoroughness of the democratic process meant the council had been given a detailed report to consider which reflected community advice, Mr Woodhead said.

The underlying principles in the plan change of preserving good water quality and improving it where it is degraded had not changed.

The panel had reiterated that land managers know best how to run their operations. It also underlined that they should be allowed to continue to do so unimpeded, providing those activities did not adversely affect the surrounding environment, particularly water, Mr Woodhead said.

The panel, comprising Otago regional councillors Duncan Butcher and David Shepherd, and former Queenstown-Lakes District mayor Clive Geddes, spent considerable time reading submissions, listening to evidence presented at the hearings late last year, questioning submitters, and deliberating on matters raised.

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The commissioners heard evidence from 171 submitters and their representatives over 22 days last year.

Their report highlights the recognition by many submitters that collaboration between ORC and the community is essential if water quality objectives are to be successfully met.

To reflect this, the hearings commissioners proposed a set of revised objectives for adoption as part of the plan change.
These were:

To maintain water quality in Otago lakes, rivers, wetlands, and groundwater, but enhance it where it is degraded;

To enable the discharge of water or contaminants to water or land, in a way that maintains water quality and supports natural and human use values;

To have individuals and communities manage the effects, including cumulative effects, of their activities on water quality.

The commissioners recommended extending the timeframes for land managers to change their management practices and comply with the permitted activity rules in the plan, from 2019 to 2020.

For Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus (DRP), Nitrate-Nitrite Nitrogen (NNN), ammoniacal nitrogen, and E.coli, the deadline for compliance has been extended from 2017 and 2019 to 2020 for discharges from landholders’ properties.

The targets for the receiving water (rivers and lakes) have been extended to 2025.

The permitted activity rules for sediment take effect as soon as the plan becomes operative. This is unchanged from the notified plan change.

Prohibitions against gross discharges, sediment discharges, discharges from animal waste systems, silage storage, and composting systems also take effect as soon the plan becomes operative, which again is unchanged from the notified version.

The panel acknowledged that some land-based activities, such as forestry, will need to change their discharge management practices, and reassess industry best practice to achieve environmental outcomes.

Mr Woodhead said the effects-based approach which underpins ORC’s Rural Water Strategy and is given effect to in the plan change, is strongly supported by the community.

The effects-based approach being implemented by ORC fostered individual responsibility for contaminant discharges. It also encouraged land managers to be mindful of the impact their practices have on water quality, and to change those practices where needed.

“Land managers can manage their activities as they wish, as long as they do not breach the discharge limits set within the plan.”

Farmers and other land managers could be reassured ORC would not be rushing to extra compliance as many feared. Rather, compliance staff would continue to follow existing practices and intervene where monitoring determined the prohibited activity rules in the plan had been breached, or if a complaint was received.

Mr Woodhead said the intensification of agriculture in New Zealand had posed problems in some waterways.

“These changes to the Otago Water Plan will drive a commensurate intensification in environmental farming practices. We are confident this approach will ensure Otago’s waterways retain good water quality standards.”

The changes allow incremental change to be made to improve water quality over several years by providing a window of opportunity for land managers to ensure their properties comply with the new rules.

ORC staff would be working in tandem with them through community-based catchment programmes to ensure they understood how they could best achieve compliant discharges, Mr Woodhead said.

The council will notify its decision on the plan change on Saturday April 20.

Submitters may appeal the council’s decision to the Environment Court within 30 working days of the notice of decision being served. Appeals close at 5pm on Tuesday June 4.


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