The farming company has already converted 16,000ha of forestry to dairy since 2004, much of which is being leased by Landcorp.
But the latest resource consent to convert a further 1800ha has environmental and farming groups aghast that it was not a publicly notified consent.
It has also left Wairakei’s largest leaseholder, Landcorp, in an awkward position as the state-owned farmer works to de-intensify its Taupo operations and push hard on its pure, grass-fed Pamu brand.
Landcorp was sideswiped by the consent application and believed it should have been notified.
Should the conversion go ahead it will dump an extra 60t of nitrogen a year into the catchment, in addition to the 528t of nitrogen the estate already releases.
But in a catchment subject to the Healthy Rivers plan, farmer and environmental groups maintain the council will be running ahead of the new plan’s intent if it grants the consent as it stands now.
Under the plan, forest to farm conversion is almost impossible, requiring converters to prove lower nitrogen losses will occur than when the land was in trees.
“The talk right through PC1 (the plan) is about holding the line on nitrogen losses in the catchment and this consent goes completely against that intent,” Federated Farmers Waikato president Andrew McGiven said.
“Wairakei do seem to have played the game right in their interests but we would definitely be wanting to see this consent be publicly notified.”
Insult is added to injury for farmers in the catchment who have also seen the large corporate farmer claim water rights for irrigation on the properties, sourced from the river.
Farmers for Positive Change spokesman Rick Burke said the group actively pushing for changes in the plan for more equitable nitrogen allocation has accused the council of being asleep at the wheel on the consent.
“The council risks losing complete credibility with farmers in the Waikato region if it lets this consent go ahead.
“This will only result in more nitrogen being dumped into the catchment and farmers downstream being required to slice their nitrogen allowances under PC1 back even further.”
He called for Government intervention should the consent continue unimpeded.
But council chairman Alan Livingston said it had become very aware of farmers’ feelings towards the consent in recent weeks and there is no guarantee it will continue and be approved in its current form.
“We are still in the process of considering all aspects of this consent.
“They (Wairakei) had lodged a consent application prior to PC1 in September 2016 and we knew it would be coming up after PC1 had been notified.
“It still has to be treated as a normal, pre-PC1 application.”
However, he acknowledged there are quite clearly a number of issues being examined closely by council regulatory staff in context of PC1 now being in place.
“Whatever amount of nitrogen losses they have stated, it will mean it cannot be produced elsewhere and so it will demand closer scrutiny because of that increased nitrogen loading.”
He acknowledged any pressure it put on existing farmers downstream to further reduce their nitrogen losses would “absolutely not” go down well with them and would be to the detriment of other farmers.
Armstrong acknowledged the application is an embarrassment for Pamu (Landcorp) given that company’s efforts in the past two years to de-intensify its dairying operations on the Wairakei estate.
Landcorp said the application should be publicly notified to ensure all interested parties can be heard on the enivronmental implications.
“We should also note that the Healthy Rivers plan is still in its very early stages and it makes sense to have more clarity on how the plan will be implemented before proceeding with this application.”
