Moves on stock, land use to restore rivers

A committee of river iwi governors and Waikato regional councillors will recommend that a proposed plan change for the Waikato and Waipa rivers be sent to the regional council for consideration.

The committee’s decision at a meeting at Karapiro recently followed consideration of the proposed plan change formulated by a multi-sector collaborative stakeholder group (CSG).

The CSG was formed as part of the ‘Healthy Rivers: Plan for Change/Wai Ora: He Rautaki Whakapaipai’ project, running since 2012. The project involves river iwi, Waikato Regional Council and key stakeholders including farmers.

The regional council is due to consider the notification of the proposed plan change this Thursday (September 15). The public will be consulted once a plan change recommendation is signed by the council.

The committee has agreed to an 80+ day submissions process because of the level of public interest in the plan change, and the complexity and volume of information supporting the plan change.

The plan change is intended to begin an 80-year process of restoring the rivers to safety for swimming and food gathering along their entire lengths, as is required by the Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato (Vision and Strategy for the Waikato and Waipa rivers).

The Vision and Strategy stemmed from Treaty settlement legislation giving iwi a central role in protecting their tupuna awa (ancestral rivers). The CSG had regard to both the vision and strategy and the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management in its deliberations.

The plan change focuses on the contaminants nitrogen, phosphorous, pathogens and sediment getting into the rivers. These can harm the health of water bodies or present risks to people and stock, and the aim is to reduce their presence to acceptable levels.

Due to the extent of change required, the CSG has recommended an 80-year staged approach to achieving the water quality required by the vision and strategy for the rivers. The first stage covered by the proposed plan change recommended by the committee involves actions over a decade that will ultimately result in 10% of the change towards achieving Te Ture Whaimana.

Analysis indicates the measures proposed by the CSG will make major improvements in bacteria levels and some improvement in phosphorus and sediment levels in the first 10 years.

Specific ideas for boosting river health being suggested in the proposed plan change include: getting more stock out of waterways, new resource consent requirements and introducing extra restrictions for land use change, management of direct discharges to the rivers, targeting particular catchments for special attention, nitrogen discharge benchmarking and requirements for high emitters to reduce discharges, and requirements for greater planning of land use activities.