One in 10 farmers have yet to apply and run the risk of being denied a water permit.
All consent applications have to be submitted to Waikato Regional Council by December 24 to guarantee access to grandparenting water provisions.
Any applications received from January will join a queue and those farmers’ access to water will be determined by what water is left over in their catchment, council division manager Brent Sinclair says.
Some locations, including the Piako catchment, were already over-allocated and council’s hands would be tied by the amount of water left available, Sinclair said.
Farmers who missed out would have to run their farm dairy under permitted activity levels, buy water from their neighbour or look into water storage options.
“But you don’t want people to be in that situation, we want them to get their grandparenting rights.”
Access to water was essential for farming businesses and a permit would be pivotal for people wanting to buy or sell dairy farms so council didn’t want farmers to miss out, he said.
Council had received 90% of applications from the estimated 2600 farmers, 20% of which had been signed off, with council hoping to process all remaining applications within the next 12 months.
Variation 6 was part of council’s wider regional plan to allocate service water resources in accordance with the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. That sets out objectives and policies which direct local government to manage water in an integrated and sustainable way, while providing for economic growth within set water quantity and quality limits.
Under Variation 6, dairy farmers could take up to 15,000 litres a day from bores or waterways for farm dairy water, subject to water availability, but needed consent if they wanted to take more.
Farmers were guaranteed grandparented access to the level they were using at October 2008 provided they met the deadline for their consent applications.
Farmers who had increased their water use through expansion or new conversion since 2008 were not covered by the grandparenting provisions and would have to go into the queue to determine their water allocation.
There were farmers in the Upper Waikato catchment where the Variation 6 process had been difficult to guarantee water rights, Sinclair said.
Council had worked with Federated Farmers to identify those farmers and liaise with them early.
For any future expansion and dairy conversions in the region, farmers would have to consider water availability and liaise with council, farm water project manager Amy King said.
“If they need water, they’ll have to call us before they go any further.”
There were, however, opportunities to improve water use efficiency, transfer water permits between parties, or harvest and store water at high flow times for use at other times, she said.
Water transfers and storage opportunities would require farmers to work together in their community.
The person who applied for the consent held the permit and it could be transferred to another person.
For example, a farmer who through smart water-use had reduced their requirements could transfer their leftover allocated water.
Group water storage could also be an option for farmers wanting more water.
The industry indicated the average water volume necessary for farm dairy wash-down was 70 litres/cow/day, but many farmers were now getting by easily with 50-60l, Sinclair said.
Many farmers had voluntarily installed a water meter to better manager water, which was a recognition that water was becoming an asset that had to be managed efficiently.
“If you know how much you use, you know how much you can grow.”
The Variation 6 consents were expected to last for 15 years. However, the National Policy for Freshwater Management required any existing over-allocation be phased out by December 2030 and Waikato Regional Council would be reviewing its water allocation rules and limits again in 2022.
For more information or to apply for a Variation 6 consent phone Waikato Council 0800 800 402 or visit www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/watertakes
For a guide to smart water use visit www.dairynz.co.nz
