Explainer: $700m to make waterways clean again

Thursday, 28 May 2020

Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor fronts for freshwater meeting at Gore.

EXPLAINER: New Zealand's waterways may seem on track to become toxic farm and landfill bogs, but the Government has come up with a plan to reverse that fate.

New Zealand culture revolves around waterways, yet they're in crisis. The water Kiwis drink, the freshwater for kai and a summer swim are all part of the picture - but right now a swim in most of our water holes could make you seriously ill.

Despite New Zealand's clean, green aspirations, our failure to keep waterways clear are no secret. Currently, about 94 per cent of rivers in urban areas and 82 per cent of rivers in pastoral areas are not swimmable. Taking a summer dip means swimming in nitrates, E. coli, or disease: a cocktail of farming waste.

Nitrate levels in our water are even high enough to be contributing to our high rates of colorectal cancer.

**READ MORE:

Lake Ellesmere from above, showing the dark sedimen from farming outflow.

* Government pumps $700m into cleaning up waterways

* Budget 2020: Government pledges $1.1b for 'green jobs'

* It's our birthright to swim in the local river in summer, we must not let this slip away

The spit separates Lake Ellesmere from the sea, and is home to New Zealand's largest population of shrubby tororaro plants.

Our filthy waterways are not just harming us. Many species depend on clean rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries, and 76 per cent of our native fish are threatened or at risk of extinction.

Despite the state of the waterways, freshwater quality remains New Zealanders' number one environmental concern, and the Government has finally done something about it.

Buried rubbish which has been washed out of the banks of the Waikaka River, on the outskirts of Gore.

On Thursday the Government pumped $700m in to cleaning up the country's waterways, and Environment Minister David Parker has declared he'll make waterways swimmable again.

The new plan, called the Action for Healthy Waterways package, sets higher standards around the cleanliness of swimming spots. It includes a new bottom line for nitrogen toxicity, controls for farming practices and mandatory and enforceable farm environment plans.

Renwick stream, where eels were rescued and released to nearby river.

It's also set two goals. Goal one is to stop rivers getting worse, and goal two is restoring rivers to a healthy state within a generation.

Climate Change Minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw touts it as the strongest protections a government has ever issued for waterways.

The plan's numerous proposals include requirements to improve freshwater swim spots within five years.

The plan passes much of the implementation to councils, and there's doubt that they can hit the targets.

It orders councils to further manage and reduce E. coli levels, introducing a new national bottom line for E. coli for swimming sites. Ideally, that move will mean improved council efforts to fight down E. coli levels.

Ultimately, the plan gives regional councils the power, but their track record of caring for waterways has proven them incompetent. If they were competent, we would be able to swim in our rivers.

Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research environmental social researcher Dr Nicholas Kirk says he doesn't know if councils can pull it off.

James Cook University's Dr Adam Canning says the winter rules for stock 'will leave cows standing in 20cm of mud'.

'I remain concerned about council capacity to implement these new policies, especially given most councils were struggling to implement the freshwater reform package passed by the previous National Government.'

Councils will be given a helping hand by expert commissioners and tangata whenua to update their policies and plans, but Kirk warned that will take time the councils may not have.

New Zealand culture revolves around waterways, yet they're in crisis.

'Many questions remain about council capacity to implement these reforms, for example: how will monitoring of new attributes, such as sediment, be paid for?

'Who will be employed to help farmers complete environmental plans? How will spatial exemptions for certain land uses, such as vegetable growing, work in practice?'

Parker has placed new protections on urban streams and put controls on “higher-risk farm practices' - such as winter grazing and feed lots which can make water filthy. The plan also calls for fencing animals out of large streams, and a cap on fertiliser application.

The success of the plan may be judged on if the next generation can swim in clean rivers.

The winter rules for animals are too weak, James Cook University's Dr Adam Canning says. 'This will leave cows standing in 20cm of mud, without question.

'There is no requirement for animal shelter, which is important not only for welfare reasons, but to minimise soil pugging and erosion.'

In Canterbury, the 20-year rise of dairy farming has been blamed for the soaring nitrate levels in the region's drinking water.

The heavy dairy areas of Taranaki, Canterbury and Southland will be affected by the reforms the most.

The package may seem like a lot of extra work for farmers, but if farmers clean up their act, they will also reap the benefits of cleaner water.

Officials estimate the net benefits of the proposals – that is the benefits minus the costs – to be $193 million per annum over 30 years .

Cleaning the water could secure the future of meat, dairy and other primary exports, according to David Parker. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor agrees that the package would help to increase the value of primary exports.

The $700m dedicated to farmers' clean-up efforts could also alleviate the pains caused by Covid-19.

The millions will create jobs - riparian and wetland planting, removing sediments and other roles to prevent farm runoff entering waterways. Planting stream banks, writing farming plans, and building wetlands will assist councils fulfil the plan.

Niwa chief scientist of freshwater and estuaries Dr Scott Larned says the package is incomplete. He says more science and policy work is needed.

Larned also wants research to allocate water to users more fairly, and to define dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus thresholds for rivers.

Fish & Game New Zealand chief executive Martin Taylor says there's much more work ahead.

Setting a bottom line on dissolved inorganic nitrogen levels has been postponed for 12 months, despite scientists calling for a limit to be set.

'All political parties are on notice that in this year's election Kiwis will expect to be able to swim, fish and gather food from their rivers, lakes and streams,' Taylor says.

Earlier this year, commentator Simon Lusk said the new measures are bound to fail.

A simple measure of the reform success will be if people can swim in their rivers every summer, or 'whether they will be closed for swimming due to excessive levels of toxic algae', Lusk said.

The timer is set, and the next generation might get to swim in clean water.