Southland Water and Land Plan appeal hearing begins

Tuesday, 4 June 2019

An Environment Southland Water and Land Plan document.

Additional methods for assessing water degradation in Southland are required, an Environment Court Judge has heard in Invercargill.

Forest and Bird lawyer Sally Gepp made the statement during an Environment Court hearing in which multiple agencies have appealed the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan.

The plan aims to address declining water quality and manage land-use activities that contribute a significant level of contaminants.

After several years of submissions and hearings, 19 submitters including the three Southland councils, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Fish and Game and and Forest and Bird have appealed various parts of the plan.

The first part of the appeal hearing began at Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill on Tuesday and is expected to take two weeks.

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* Controversial Southland Water and Land Plan hearing begins**

The remainder of the appeal is likely be heard next year.

Lawyers for the some of the appellants outlined technical aspects of their appeals to Judge Jane Borthwick, two commissioners and a special advisor on the first day of the hearing.

Gepp said additional methods for assessing water degradation were required prior to the limit setting process, in which limits will be set on the amount of contaminants that can be discharged into waterways.

Holding the line in water quality required an understanding of what was meant by degradation and when improvement should be considered, she said.

It was clear to experts that areas of the region were degraded with respect to ecosystem health and human health for recreation.

'The experts agree that until appropriate thresholds are established and changes made to stressors affecting ecosystem health, water quality may not be maintained or improved.'

The plan should include numeric thresholds 'now' to define degraded water bodies, she said

The proposed plan addresses activities that have a significant effect on waterways such as land-use intensification, winter grazing, stock exclusion from waterways and further intensification or establishment of new dairy farms.

In relation to urban land use, the plan seeks to better manage discharges of stormwater and sewage.

The Gore and Southland district councils and Invercargill City Council have lodged a joint appeal focussed on two key issues: That stormwater be defined to include contaminants and not just rainwater; and that discharges to land or water from community wastewater treatment systems be a discretionary activity rather than a non-complying activity.

Environment Southland lawyer Philip Maw, in his opening statement, said both the rural and urban communities needed to recognise that current practices would need to change if water quality was to be maintained and improved.

'The reason the community mindset change is required is because water quality, in some places, shows declining trends in Southland.

Water quality was an issue of increasing national significance, he said.

The available science showed current actions were not maintaining water quality.

Despite the inherent challenges, Environment Southland was working hard to address the water quality challenges the region faced, he added.

The proposed plan had been developed by the council under the Resource Management Act and formed part of the regional planning documents managing Southland's water and land resources.