Media Release
17 December 2012

Draft Tukituki Plan Change

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council endorsed the draft Tukituki Plan Change at the Council meeting on 12 December, the means for HBRC to activate water quality and flow improvements, following an approach adopted by Council in October.

HBRC staff continue to work on provisions within the document and aim to present a final Tukituki Plan Change for adoption by Council at the next meeting on 30 January 2013. The plan change will then be ready for notification and the formal submission process.

“This is an important step forward and begins the active process to help us all improve water quality and quantity in the Tukituki catchment. We have a desire to move toward the outcome of a better place and this is the start of that,” says Chairman Fenton Wilson.

In presenting the draft plan change to Councillors, HBRC staff highlighted new sections and provided an overview of how the draft Tukituki Plan Change gives effect to the key approaches being taken.

The draft Tukituki Plan Change sets out the environmental bottom lines for all activities in the catchment – taking water, discharging to water and land, and now the use of the land. For example, diffuse discharges from farmed land must also be measured against in-stream water quality limits.

Excessive growth of algae and slime is the biggest freshwater quality issue in the Tukituki catchment. Science investigations confirm that reducing the phosphorus load in the catchment will deliver the biggest and quickest gains for environmental improvement.

An improvement that is already scheduled is the treatment of discharges from the Waipawa and Waipukurau wastewater plants, which will significantly reduce the phosphorus load in the river. This is a requirement of existing resource consent conditions by September 2014.

The draft plan change includes rules for keeping stock out of river water. This will help reduce algae growth where phosphorus is attached to soil which currently enters the river system. Keeping stock out of the water will also improve stream banks and habitats for native fish and trout, as well as aesthetics.

The draft plan change proposes increases in minimum flow limits to protect fish habitats. This means some consent holders will need to stop taking water for irrigation earlier than they currently do.

HBRC recognises that the draft Tukituki Plan Change will reduce the reliability of water supply and so, in parallel, has been investigating the storage of higher river flows to provide an alternative supply. This plan change and the Ruataniwha Water Storage scheme are part of a strategic approach to managing the Tukituki catchment.

HBRC also acknowledges that transition time is essential for these changes to come into force, so stock exclusion will not take effect until 2017, and new minimum flow restrictions until 2018.

The primary production sector is working proactively with HBRC to develop industry good practice guidelines for nutrient, sediment and effluent management. The rules are designed to incentivise farmers to stay in or move to a ‘permitted activity’ status.

“It is, no doubt, a new era for farmers in the Tukituki catchment and other catchment based plan changes will follow,” said Helen Codlin, HBRC’s Strategic Development Group Manager.

Other regions are also experiencing the impact of plans that set water quality limits, required by the government’s National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

HBRC will be lodging resource consent applications for the Ruataniwha Water Storage scheme, with a request to ‘call in’ the proposed plan change to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to enable an independent and integrated decision making process to occur through a single Board of Inquiry.

More information on the scheme and related timing is on HBRC’s website, keyword Ruataniwha.