The Ministry for the Environment report, Essential freshwater, healthy water, fairly allocated, said every New Zealander has a role to protect and restore freshwater quality.
It set three targets: stopping further degradation, reversing past damage and addressing allocation issues.
“To protect and restore water quality in many catchments, contaminant discharges must be restricted,” it said.
“Every catchment has a different mix of land use and soil types and so will have a different limit on the number of contaminants that can be discharged without damaging the health of the waterway.
“Setting a freshwater objective to establish the acceptable amount of contaminants, followed by a discharge limit across a catchment, requires decisions about how each property can operate within the collective limit or what the discharge allocation is.”
Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor have convened two new groups to provide them with advice. They are the Freshwater Leader’s Group and a Science and Technical Advisory Group.
In a joint paper to Cabinet Parker and O’Connor said they have also asked primary sector organisations and leaders to show greater leadership and commitment to improving freshwater quality.
“There has been a positive response.
“For example, DairyNZ has identified projects to demonstrate that the sector can work with other interested parties to lead and influence farmer behaviour and achieve more sustainable land use.”
The report said NZ has 4200 catchments and with 150 years of population growth and land use change freshwater environments are under pressure.
The main cause of freshwater quality decline is run-off or leaching of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and pathogens such as E coli.
It estimates nitrogen leaching from agriculture increased 29% between 1990 and 2012 from increased fertiliser use, with the greatest increases in Waikato, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
By 2013 nitrogen levels were increasing at more sites (55%) than decreasing (28%).
From 2002 to 2017 the area of irrigated land increased 70% and between 1994 and 2014 the number of dairy cattle rose from 3.8m to 6.7m.
But declining water quality is not just a rural problem, it said.
From 2009 to 2013 E coli concentration was 22 times higher in urban centres and 9.5 times higher in pastoral areas compared to natural areas.
In the summer of 2017-18, 50 Auckland beaches were closed to swimmers because of sewage and storm water overflow and 90% of wetlands have been lost to agricultural and urban development.
A 17% increase in NZ’s population between 1996 and 2012 saw a 10% increase in urban land area.
Improving urban waterways requires significant investment in sewerage and storm water infrastructure but also fewer impervious surfaces, reducing contaminants, heavy metals, sediment and litter and restoring habitats.
In addition to the two advisory groups the Government intends identifying at-risk catchments, amending the Resource Management Act and changing the way fresh water is allocated.
Amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management will consider ways to improve ecosystem health, measure new elements such as sediment, copper, zinc and dissolved oxygen, clarify the setting of effective limits, better protect wetlands and estuaries and introduce policies for at-risk catchments.
The national environmental standard for freshwater management will govern resource use and regulate intensive winter grazing, hill country cropping, feedlots and potentially limit nutrients.
Changes to the allocation of fresh water will address contaminant discharges and the authority to take and use water.
The report said the initial focus will be on nitrogen because discharges can already be measured.
The focus will then shift to discharges of phosphorous and sediment, including restrictions on activities needed to meet environmental limits.
To assist that the Government allocated $5m in the last Budget for further development of Overseer.
The plan also includes establishing by January a compliance oversight unit in the ministry at a cost of $3.1 million to improve the consistency, effectiveness and transparency of council enforcement of Resource Management Act rules and decisions, particularly in relation to fresh water.
The Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund will allocate $40m a year to farmers and growers for freshwater projects and initiatives.
Anyone discharging pollutants to fresh water, including farmers, growers, foresters, businesses and urban authorities, will have to follow good practice.
The report said more consideration is needed on how to ensure good practice is applied on every farm property and consequences if actions are not appropriate.
Good farming practice principles for water quality have been agreed but work is needed to accelerate their uptake.
The advisers
The Fresh-water Leaders Group has been appointed based on personal experience and commitment, not as representatives of any organisations. Its members are John Pennp. chairman, Mandy Bell, Alison Dewes, Graeme Gleeson, Traci Houpapa, Stephanie Howard, Tom Lambie, Bryce Johnson, Corina Jordan, Allen Lim, Dr Hugh Logan, Marnie Prickett, Dr Marc Schallenberg, Lees Seymour, Professor Nicola Shadbolt and Gary Taylor.
The Science and Technical Advisory Group will ensure science is accurately interpreted and incorporated into the policy process. Its members are Ken Taylor, chairman, Dr Adam Canning, Dr Bryce Cooper, Dr Clive Howard-Williams, Dr Chris Daughney, Dr Bev Clarkson, Graham Sevicke-Jones, Professor Ian Hawes, Professor Jenny Webster-Brown, Dr Joanne Clapcott, Dr Jon Roygard, Dr Marc Schallenberg, Dr Mike Joy and Professor Russell Death.
