Otago Federated Farmers chairman Simon Davies says farmers learned the specifics of the water quality plan changes only after being approached by regional councillors concerned at the implications.
The plan sets new rules and requires resource consents for the storage capacity of dairy effluent, the structure of effluent ponds and prohibits the application of effluent to land within 50m of a waterway.
It also requires cattle being fed winter crops to start grazing from the top of a hill and excludes dairy cattle from waterways through fences to provide a 5m wide buffer.
Davies said many of the rules are impractical but one in particular fails what he calls the sense-checking test because the fencing rules apply only to dairy breeds.
“The nitty gritty of the plan has not been communicated because officially we have not seen it because it has not been notified.”
Part of the reason for that is the decision by the council and Environment Minister David Parker to refer the water quality and water permit plans to the Environment Court.
Last year Parker advised the council on steps it needed to take to implement a fit-for-purpose management plan for the region’s freshwater, which followed several years of delays.
In a statement last month council chairwoman Marian Hobbs, Environment Minister in Helen Clark’s Labour Government, said Parker considers the council’s plan changes to be of national significance.
“His decision sought to assist the council by allowing staff to focus on developing a new Land and Water Regional Plan and to avoid potential delays associated with the standard consultation process that could complicate development of the Land and Water Regional Plan.”
The water permits plan change, known as Plan Change 7, was notified and submissions invited in March but it has also been referred to the Environment Court and the Environmental Protection Agency will now seek submissions ahead of the court hearings.
The plan reduces existing consents to take water to a maximum of six years.
Hobbs said the council will ask the agency to consult “mandatory parties and sector representatives prior to notification” of the plan and the court hearing.
Davies believes the council sent the plans to the Environment Court because it did not have sufficient councillor support to notify them and he is worried decision-making is being passed from local councillors to Wellington bureaucrats.
“That’s not what we elected our representatives to do. Neither is it what ratepayers pay council staff to do.”
Davies says the federation and many other rural groups oppose the council’s water permit proposals.
“We said in our submission that it fails on tests of cost-effectiveness, fairness, adequate consultation and consistency with existing policies.”
The council has also failed to identify the benefits, costs and risks of new policies and rules on the community, the economy and the environment.
He describes the maximum six-year term for consents to take water as ridiculously short, saying that will prevent farmers getting finance to replace inefficient irrigation systems such as flood with centre pivots.
Equally, those stuck using flood systems might struggle to renew their consents because they cannot prove they are using water efficiently.
