Environment Minister is given proposal for tougher water quality standards

Environment Minister David Parker will consider tougher water quality standards which have been proposed to replace the standards National introduced last year, Radio NZ reported today.

The previous government was widely criticised for introducing standards for swimming which did not actually measure the health of lakes and rivers.

Mr Parker has been presented with the proposed National Policy Statement for freshwater management which was written by Fish and Game with input from Forest and Bird, the Environmental Defence Society and Greenpeace.

A key difference between the two sets of standards is that the proposed Freshwater National Policy Statement would account for the health of ecosystems, setting a bottom line which enables people to swim and collect food from rivers and lakes without getting sick.

Research from freshwater scientist Mike Joy was used for the proposal, which he said sets standards requiring measurements of more components of the water to give a much broader picture of what is happening in a catchment.

“What we had before was a National Policy Statement that talked all about ecosystem health, but then had no measures of ecosystem health and no requirement for meeting levels of ecosystem health,” he said.

The previous standards were introduced by former Environment Minister Nick Smith, who dismissed criticism of them as “junk science”.

But Dr Joy told Radio NZ those standards could not even achieve their own stated aims, and if the proposed measures were put in place there would be action on improving water quality.

Mr Parker declined to be interviewed on the matter, saying he had received various views on national water standards and would consider them.

But he said a report from the Land and Water Forum last week proved consensus could not be reached on different measures of water quality and the mandate now passed back to central government to tackle.

Source: Radio New Zealand

 

Govt sets freshwater target: 90% of rivers and lakes to be swimmable by 2040

The Government has announced a target of 90 per cent of New Zealand’s lakes and rivers meeting swimmable water quality standards by 2040.

Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith said the plan is backed by national regulations requiring stock to be fenced out of waterways, new national policy requirements on regional councils to strengthen their plan rules on issues such as sewage discharges and planting riparian margins, a new Freshwater Improvement Fund and new maps that clearly identify where improvements are needed.

Meeting the goal is estimated to cost the Government, farmers and councils $2 billion over the next 23 years.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy (HERE) said the Ministry for Primary Industries continues to work with the primary sectors to invest in good ideas which promote environmental best practice. One example is the Farm Systems Change program, which identifies high preforming farms and uses farmers’ networks to spread their knowledge.

Another is a major programme under the Primary Growth Partnership, called Transforming the Dairy Value Chain. Under this programme effluent management systems have been improved, and every region now has a riparian planting guideline developed in conjunction with regional councils, Guy said.

“We also know that science will play a major role in improving our freshwater. The ‘Our Land and Water’ National Science Challenge is investing $96.9 million over 10 years into this, hosted by AgResearch and involving six other Crown research institutes.

In his announcement (HERE) Dr Smith said the target recognised that our frequent major rainfalls mean a 100 per cent standard is not realistic.

The target covers the length of rivers over 0.4m deep and the perimeters of lakes greater than 1.5km, which total 54,000km.

The plan is about improving the frequency that we can swim in our lakes and rivers, noting that even our cleanest rivers breach swimming water quality standards during storms.

The swimmable target is based on meeting the water quality standard at least 80 per cent of the time, in line with European and US definitions. Currently 72 per cent by length meet this definition, and the target is to increase that to 90 per cent by 2040. This means an additional 10,000km of swimmable rivers and lakes by 2040, or 400km per year.

The maps provide comprehensive and consistent information on water quality for swimming of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes. They are intended to help focus councils and communities on improving their local water quality, as well as helping people make decisions about where they can safely swim.

The maps are connected to the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa website that provides real-time information on water quality, which is particularly relevant for the fair and intermittent categories.

The target not only requires an improvement in areas that are swimmable, ie into the fair category, but also rivers and lakes being moved from fair to good, and good to excellent. Regional targets to achieve the national goals are to be worked through with regional councils by March 2018.

Some regional targets will need to be greater than the 90 per cent and others, where it is more difficult to achieve, will be less, Smith said.  .

The National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater Management is being strengthened to support the new 90 per cent by 2040 swimmability target, as well as changes to address the issues of ecological health and nutrients.

New regulations on excluding stock from waterways are an important part of this plan to improve water quality. The rules progressively apply to dairy, pig, dairy support, beef and deer farms from this year to 2030 relative to the steepness of the country, at an expected cost of $367 million.

Bids have been opened for the new $100m Freshwater Improvement Fund and announcing the eligibility and assessment criteria, which closes on 13 April. This comes on top of the $350m already committed by the government, of which more than $140m has been spent on specific river and lake clean-ups.

The detail of the NPS and Stock Exclusion Regulations are open for consultation until 28 April 2017.

The press statement was accompanied by a Q& A paper and a paper titled Clean Water. 

To read the proposals, and find out how to have your say, visit www.mfe.govt.nz