Moana MACKEY
Environment Spokesperson
21 November 2013              MEDIA STATEMENT

PCE report on nutrient pollution timely

Labour’s Environment spokesperson Moana Mackey says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on land use and nutrient pollution is timely but  it raises some very serious questions around the proposed management of nutrient load in the Ruataniwha scheme currently before a board of inquiry

“The modelling in the report brings together projected rural land use and for the first time links that to projected impacts on water quality in relation to Nitrogen and Phosphorous load. The message is clear – business as usual, even assuming mitigation strategies are employed, will see further degradation of our waterways.

“The report also asks whether in order to protect water quality it is enough to only control one of these nutrients - either nitrogen or phosphate. It states that this approach is “risky”. This is very timely given that the Tukituki River Instream Model (TRIM) which is currently being considered under very truncated timelines by a Board of Inquiry proposes to only control Phosphorous and to let Nitrogen levels rise to potentially toxic levels.

“This is not surprising given that phosphorous is the far easier of the two nutrients to control.

“Labour is extremely concerned that the TRIM model is being fast-tracked through the Board of Inquiry process given serious concerns being raised by submitters about the impacts of dramatically increased nitrogen load on the river, a lack of peer reviewed evidence that the proposed model could actually work, and the extremely short time frame available to review and critique the applicants data and evidence.

“While the applicants have had years to put their case together, submitters have had four weeks.

‘This is particularly concerning given that the Government entities who would normally carry out much of this critiquing work have not done so amongst claims of political intervention. This has meant the burden has largely fallen to NGOs, iwi, and local businesses who don’t have anywhere near the level of the resources available to Government to do this work.

“While much broader in its scope, this report is yet another in a long line of reports and research which questions the appropriateness of single nutrient management approaches such as that proposed under the TRIM model.

“How many more reports need to be produced before the Government starts listening?” 

ENDS

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