The new Essential Freshwater rules became law earlier this month and in the past couple of weeks councils and groups including Federated Farmers, Beef + Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) and DairyNZ have been studying the detail of the regulations so they and the people they represent are as prepared as possible for changes when they come into effect.
Some of those changes come into effect next month, while others will be rolled out over the next few years.
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) regional sector chair Doug Leeder says the sector, made up of the 16 regional and unitary councils who act as environmental regulators, needs support and guidance from the Ministry for the Environment (MfE).
He says, given the restraints of councils’ present capabilities, a lot of work will be required to come up with a standardised approach to the regulations that can be applied across the country to minimise the potential for churn, waste and litigation for local government organisations and the primary sector as a whole.
“It’s early days but we are working on it with speed. It’s a high priority,” Leeder said.
More operational staff, including scientists, policy planners and consent and compliance advisers, all of whom are in short supply, will be needed to make the new programme work, which will require additional funding in councils’ long-term plans.
Like their counterparts around the country Otago, Taranaki and Horizons (Manawatu-Whanganui) regional councils are working through the regulations to see how their requirements should be interpreted in their areas.
Otago chairman Andrew Noone says his staff are still coming to grips with the implications of the new regulations.
“I don’t think we are fully across it yet, whether that is our fault or because it has come down the pipeline at a swift rate, but we’re all catching up,” he said.
He estimates the council will need to employ about 50 extra staff in coming years to fulfil the requirements of the new rules.
Taranaki director of operations Stephen Hall is confident the region’s long-running riparian management programme, under which farmers have voluntarily fenced and planted thousands of kilometres of streambanks, will help ensure the region can largely meet most, if not all, of the new stock exclusion requirements.
He says the programme is nearing completion and an independent study by NIWA has confirmed it is a significant factor in sustained improvements in waterway health in the region.
Horizons strategy and regulation group manager Dr Nic Peet says the new package of rules is large and complex and in places there is a need to better understand how they will be applied in a practical sense, which is something councils are working together and with MfE on.
One of those is the low slope map being used as part of new stock exclusion requirements.
Whether or not property is classified as low slope relies solely on a MfE map.
Federated Farmers Waikato president Jacqui Hahn says the federation is concerned about what is deemed to be low slope land, as in reality the map, which as part of the new regulations will need Cabinet approval for changes to it, captures many farmers on steep country.
The mapping appears to have been done on a land parcel basis irrespective of the actual slope of paddocks, something Hahn says is unfair to many farmers and potentially very costly.
She says the federation is going to push for changes to the low slope rules.
B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor says the devil was always going to be in the detail of the new regulations, which is proving to be the case.
In an email to farmers he said from B+LNZ’s reading of the new rules virtually all winter grazing is likely to need a consent next year, because of the stringency of some of the permitted requirements and because farmers will also need a certified farm plan to meet permitted criteria.
He says there are also provisions in the regulations that need further analysis, giving the example of a new concept that requires regional councils to meet a baseline year, or earlier, for water quality with any movement from that level considered to represent degradation and so must be addressed.
“This is a fundamental change in approach, which will have significant implications for our communities when it is applied in regional plans,” McIvor said.
DairyNZ senior environmental change specialist Helen Moodie says DairyNZ has written to farmers with advice on what the new regulations mean across different regions based on its current understanding of how councils will implement them.
She says more information on how regional councils plan to implement and monitor the new rules will become clearer in coming months and once that detail is available, DairyNZ will provide more advice.
