Just six of 40 Southland waterways swimmable, expert says

Wednesday, 5 June 2019

A Southland Water and Land Plan document.

Just six of 40 waterways in Southland are at an acceptable swimmability standard, a judge has heard.

Environment Southland senior environmental scientist Roger Hodson was on Wednesday the first witness to give evidence at the Environment Court appeals hearing for the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan.

Hodson agreed that of 40 sites in Southland with sufficient data around acceptable swimmability standards, just 15 per cent of 40 [six] were swimmable.

The national target is for 80 per cent of lakes and rivers to be swimmable by 2030 and 90 per cent by 2040.

* Councils are already struggling with swimmability targets. Here's why that's a problem

* Environment Southland aims to improve river quality by more than 5 per cent**

He agreed there was an awfully long way to go to reach the 80 per cent target.

He also agreed it would require a dramatic and widespread improvement in water quality in Southland to reach the target.

The drinkability of Southland's waterways was also an issue raised with Hodson.

He said he did not know if lowland waterways in Southland would ever be suitable for drinking [without treatment] during his lifetime.

Hodson took the stand after lawyers for the 19 appellants had, on Tuesday and early Wednesday, outlined the issues they were appealing on to Judge Jane Borthwick and commissioners.

The proposed Southland Water and Land Plan aims to address declining water quality and manage land-use activities that contribute a significant level of contaminants.

Federated Farmers lawyer Clare Lenihan said it was largely supportive of the high-level provisions in the proposed plan and its aim to 'hold the line' in water quality until such time as limits were set on the amount of contaminants that could be discharged into waterways.

Federated Farmers was eager to see there was good water quality in Southland as its members operations depended on it, Lenihan said on Tuesday.

However the feds were still seeking the deletion of a line in each of the physiographic zone policies which directed decision makers to generally not grant consents for additional dairy farming of cows, or additional intensive winter grazing, where contaminant losses would increase as a result of the activity.

Lenihan said it was important for landowners to have the opportunity to demonstrate that, although there may be some increase in contaminant loss, a particular activity may not have further adverse effects, or if mitigation measures were proposed the overall environmental outcome may improve.

'The focus should be on any adverse effects of the contaminant increase, not solely on a contaminant increase alone,' Lenihan said.

The hearing will resume on Thursday.