Changes outlined in the Government’s Action for Healthy Waterways announcement today have met with mixed reactions in the south.

Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell said the council believed was prepared for the changes outlined, and continued to support the goal of restoring and protecting the health of New Zealand’s waterways. 

The package, which was consulted on last year, introduces new rules and regulations that place clear timeframes on actions to halt and reverse declining water quality.

There is a new National Environment Standard for Freshwater and a new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

These documents would help Environment Southland to continue making progress towards the environmental outcomes that Southland communities wanted, Mr Horrell said.

He said the boost in funding allocated in the budget for environmental initiatives was an important recognition that improving water quality was going to need investment to complement the regulatory changes announced today.

“Environment Southland has been working with landowners, iwi and community groups to get action on the ground for many years. We have progressed the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan and developed the Regional Forum to ensure we have the policies and rules in place to support the change that is required to achieve our communities’ aspirations for water in Southland.”

He said the announcement today had some wide-reaching implications for Environment Southland’s work programmes and its communities, but it was too early to fully understand what the impacts would be. It would be important to take time to look at the detail and understand the significant amount of regulatory change that is proposed.

Nevertheless, he said the proposed Southland Water and Land Plan, and the work already underway with the Regional Forum and with local communities, aligned the council well with the direction the new National Policy Statement and National Environmental Standards were taking.

Labour MP Dr Liz Craig welcomed the decisions announced today, saying the package would make a huge difference to the rivers, wetlands and estuaries here in Southland.

“The degraded state of the New River Estuary shows what can happen if we take our eye off the ball in terms of water quality”. 

“The new protections for wetlands and streams, along with stronger controls on feedlots, intensive winter grazing, and excessive fertiliser use, will reduce the amount of nutrients and sediments entering our waterways,” she said. 

“In the New River Estuary, reducing nutrient and sediment run-off would make a huge difference, with one of the biggest threats to biodiversity being the thick nutrient-enriched mud that’s smothering everything”.

“It’s great to see the Government will be supporting the primary sector and other groups to implement the new standards, with a $700 million fund to help create jobs in riparian and wetland planting, removing sediments and other initiatives to prevent run-off entering waterways”.

However, Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker said the announcement would have left many southern farmers still scratching their heads.

“While the fact sheets have been released for specific industries, the fact they are still working on drafting the updated National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management means we don’t know what all the rules are for southern farmers,” he said.

“Tireless advocating from National and industry groups Federated Farmers, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ and Horticulture New Zealand has seen certain areas of the policy amended.”

“Many of these are positive amendments, which is what the Government has announced today.”

“There is now no regulation around dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) levels, which was one of the main areas of concern but there are still questions about what the rest of the plan will contain,” he said.

“I’m thrilled the Government has listened to our calls and adjusted the plan to reflect the science and work of southern farmers, but the big question is – what about the rest of the policy?” 

Government sticks to strict waterway rules, adds $700m for jobs