The Government’s freshwater reforms require most farmers to get resource consent for winter grazing by May 1, but legal advice sought by Environment Southland has determined they may have existing use rights.
Those that comply will now require consent within six months of May 1 for the 2022 winter.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor told Farmers Weekly that initial advice from Crown Law supported that finding.
Last week, the Government eased pugging restrictions in gateways and around permanent water troughs, and O’Connor says this a further example of ensuring sensible implementation.
“I would not say the wording in the regulations is faultless,” he said.
“We were always going to rely on and work with regional councils to have sensible implementation.”
Environment Southland’s policy and planning manager Lucy Hicks says intensive winter grazing is a permitted activity in the province but farmers must meet regional plan conditions and mirror what they did last winter.
“Our legal advice is that because the requirement comes into effect on May 1, it means farmers have from that point to get consent for intensive winter grazing,” she said.
“There is an element of existing use right but you should not automatically come to such an assumption.”
Other councils have confirmed they are investigating the ruling’s implications.
O’Connor says many of the freshwater regulations expire where regional council plans and farm environment plans (FEP) are implemented.
“This is an interim arrangement to stop further water degradation,” he said.
He described criticism as exaggerated and singled out the environmental impact of winter grazing in Southland as needing improvement.
O’Connor confirmed he and Environment Minister David Parker will be in Southland on Monday for private meetings with councils and primary sector organisations to discuss the reforms.
The extra cost to councils of implementing the reforms is starting to materialise, with the Waikato Regional Council estimating it will need about 50 extra staff to monitor water quality, wetlands and data storage.
Nationally, it estimates the extra cost to councils at about $20 million.
Otago Regional Council regulatory manager Richard Saunders expects to process up to 3000 consent applications from farmers to meet new freshwater and council regulations and will hire 16 new staff.
Bay of Plenty farmers will face a tighter timeframe for meeting water quality regulations, with many of the rules kicking in by 2024, six years earlier than the regional council had originally anticipated.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair and regional sector rep for Local Government New Zealand Doug Leeder says any choice over timing was gone.
“Whether we continue to do it over our nine water management regions, or just do one entire region, is being worked through,” he said.
Waikato Regional Council science manager Mike Scarsbrook says its overall intent of improving freshwater outcomes was absolutely aligned with Government legislation,
One aspect that was concerning was where the baseline will sit for measuring water quality.
“There’s an element in the National Policy Statement which suggests that if the Council has been monitoring for a long time, then we might use that as our baseline information,” he said.
That was different from the council’s interpretation for Plan Change One which had the current state of water quality as its baseline and could create much tougher rules around nutrient limits.
“That could have a significant impact on what our long-term targets could be,” Scarsbrook said.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) deputy chair Peter Scott said the council is well positioned to meet the new regulations with its FEPs and stock exclusion policies, but changes will be needed to existing plans.
“Implementation of some of the harder things such as slope, will be resource extensive and have we got the mandate to carry on with what we do have in our regional plans of which we are a long way down the track?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Canterbury Federated Farmers’ presidents are writing to ask Environment Minister David Parker to acknowledge the new freshwater standards are being met in Canterbury and warn the new requirements could derail progress.
“In Canterbury, the NES is simply not needed, not because we don’t have intensive farming but because our current regional plan already deals with improving water quality in much more targeted and effective ways,” the federation’s North Canterbury president Cam Henderson said.
MORE: Next week, we ask councils how they will enforce the regulations.
