One Plan outcome to set national precedent

Declining water quality and historically poor management of this most precious natural resource in New Zealand has become one of the defining environmental issues of our time.

Intensification of land use is the greatest threat to water quality and has been the least likely to be addressed by regional councils. The National Policy Statement (NPS) on freshwater now requires all councils to set and implement water quality limits and find ways to address all forms of water contamination.

Appeals against the substantially weakened Horizons Regional Council’s “One Plan” is currently before the Environment Court in Palmerston North, with the key issues around water quality and environmental limits in relation to agriculture being heard next week.

Evidence from Fish & Game NZ, the lead party seeking to have pastoral agriculture put on an environmentally sustainable footing, will be heard on Monday and Tuesday (May 21, 22).

The proposed One Plan has the potential to bring with it a new era of resource management in New Zealand – the case will have significant ramifications nationally.

The Environment Court ruling will have implications nationally for how all local authorities throughout New Zealand will be expected to manage land and freshwater resources.

Fish & Game NZ believes the Environment Court ruling on the One Plan will have more immediate bearing on that region’s freshwater management than the Government’s much-lauded Land and Water Forum (LWF), which has yet to deliver actual improvements. Once the One Plan becomes law it has potential to ensure the uptake of environmentally sustainable, best on-farm practice, which will be a major step forward compared to the uncertainty of voluntary measures that are making limited headway towards improving water quality.

One Plan proposes a comprehensive new approach to limit pollution from dairy and other pastoral farming, and restrict other adverse impacts on water quality through regulatory framework limits on nitrogen, phosphorous and bacterial discharges, and will require that cattle are fenced out of the region’s water bodies behind a protected riparian buffer zone, and that stock crossing points are bridged or culverted.

Fish & Game appealed One Plan to reinstate the original strong provisions to restore water quality that had been weakened by the commissioners who heard the original plan submissions. The dairy industry and Federated Farmers appealed One Pan to further weaken the original environmental protection provisions.

ENDS

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