Council responds to Audit Report on water
Posted on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 04:56 p.m.
Environment Southland Chairman Ali Timms has welcomed the release of the Auditor General's report into the management of fresh water.
She said the year-long audit process had been a positive experience for her council and she was pleased that the report recognised that responsibility for improving water quality did not rest with regional councils alone.
The report commends the collaboration between Environment Southland and the iwi resource management agency Te Ao Marama Incorporated and supports stronger working relationships between regional councils and the dairy industry.
Cr Timms said that her Council was already involving DairyNZ and Fonterra on developing resource management policy such as the farm dairy effluent plan change, and was working with the sector in the Waituna Lagoon project. She said that the Audit Report clearly stated that the Government also had a role to play in protecting water quality throughout the country, including a recommendation that MfE should offer more guidance to regional councils in setting freshwater quality limits.
“They have provided an objective look at our plans and policies, particularly with regard to the way we deal with non-point source discharges, and given us clear direction on how we can improve,” Cr Timms said.
“We’re already responding to the outcomes of this audit, for example with changes we are making to the rules around farm dairy effluent discharges, and taken together with our operative Water Plan, this will be reflected in the way we deal with the large number of discharge consent applications that will be up for renewal in the next 18 months. It needs to be recognised that the lag between cause and effect may mean that it will be some time before we see positive environmental outcomes from these plan changes.
Cr Timms said her Council did not argue with the Audit Office’s finding that “there is still significant work to be done” in adequately managing the causes of indirect pollution in Southland and that existing policies and responses would not be enough to turn around poor or declining water quality.
“We can’t get the gains we need by just encouraging best practice and compliance with current rules. That’s why we’re pushing for collective responsibility and action on water quality issues from both rural and urban communities.”
Apart from the Waituna Lagoon, where there was more than 100% compliance with the three metre rule, farmers seem to be struggling to comply with this requirement, which has been operative for three years.
Cr Timms said Environment Southland had already set an aspirational target in the Water Plan by aiming to improve water quality by 10 percent by the year 2020. “The challenge for Southland is, can we meet that target while still increasing agricultural productivity?” Diffuse non-point source discharges is the major challenge for all regional councils.
The Council has not yet had an opportunity to consider all the recommendations in the report but would be doing so through the development of the long-term plan.
Environment Southland is the brand name of Southland Regional Council.