Residents near a huge 2000-cattle feed barn planned for Kaituna Valley by Lake Ellesmere Te Waihora will present two petitions to ECan on Thursday, calling for the proposal to be publicly notified so community concerns can be heard.

The twin petitions, which have gathered 1650 and 1585 signatures, call for the feed barns to be stopped. ECan councillors will be invited to receive the petitions on the steps of 200 Tuam Street, Christchurch, at 10.15am on Thursday 16 June, before a deputation is made to the council meeting at 11am.

The farmer, Wongan Hills, proposed in April 2022 four large composting barns for the banks of the Kaituna Stream and three kilometres from the lake. The barns would house 2200 cattle on a floor made of sawdust or straw, designed to create compost at a high enough temperature that all the liquid in the effluent would evaporate. The beef would be destined for the Japanese wagyu market.

ECan has yet to make a decision on whether to refuse the application, to grant it without notification, or to notify residents or the general public.

The campaigners, including Kaituna residents and the Little River Eco-Collective, are concerned about:

• the major risk from leaching and flooding events of more nitrates into an already degraded lake
• the increase in greenhouse gas emissions
• the impact of industrial farming on a beautiful valley, including trucks, the stench of ammonia and the visual impact
• the threat to animal health from living on a composting floor 24 hours a day.

Green MP Eugenie Sage will attend the event and Labour MP Tracey McLellan plans to attend.

Wrong farming in the wrong place

The residents say the composting barns pose a major risk to the environment. Spokesperson Donald Matheson said this kind of industrial operation was the wrong farming in the wrong place.

‘This could set back the health of Te Waihora by a generation. Wongan Farms hasn’t shown in its consent application that the system can work and has not shown it can be a good environmental steward.

‘The barns are being planned in an area that already floods and is likely to flood more regularly as the climate changes.

‘We are also deeply concerned about the risk of nitrate leaching into the water table, as has happened in mid-Canterbury after conversion to dairy and beef farming.'

Call for consent to be notified

The group is calling on ECan to notify the consent application so that the community and independent scientists can scrutinise it and those affected can have their say.

Mr Matheson said: ‘This is too important for ECan to rely on the information and analysis that Wongan Hills has put together. Manawhenua and residents need to be heard and independent scientists need to be able to analyse the risks involved.

Background

The cattle would produce an estimated 50 million litres of effluent a year (based on the applicant’s estimates) and 130,000kg of methane a year (based on 60kg per animal). The barns would be 200-240m long and 20m wide. The volume of compost turned each day would be equivalent to that turned at Christchurch City Council’s Bromley operation.

Te Waihora is the most important wetland of its type but also one of the most degraded lakes in Aotearoa New Zealand, with high nitrogen and phosphorus levels, leading to algal blooms. It is rated as D quality, the lowest of the four freshwater indicators. ECan warned against any contact with the lake in February 2022 after the latest blooms.

The lake is called Te Pātaka o Rakaihautu by manawhenua (the food basket of the ancestor who claimed the lake for the iwi), but struggles to sustain tuna (eel) and other life in its current state.

Wongan Farms received city council consent for the buildings in February 2022, although residents are calling for that consent to be reconsidered, as the farmer has now made major changes to the plans.

© Scoop Media