Govt to look into water quality issues

Environment Minister Trevor Mallard says the impact on water quality of increasing intensification of agriculture means that in some regions unchecked expansion of dairying cannot continue.

"People are going to have to recognise that there's not going to be an untrammelled right to pollute," he told a press conference yesterday on moves to improve water quality.

"There will be a lot of looking at the science around dairying and what is clear is that the rate of intensification, unchecked, will just not be able to continue," he said.

The nation had not made enough progress in cleaning up non point-source pollution of waterways, such as the run-off of effluent and fertilisers from farm paddocks.

"It's not for me to speculate about the methods that councils use, but I think in some areas they will have to back off any growth of the area (given over to dairying)," he said.

"Unless we get some real advances in science, it might well be that some of the current levels of intensity are not sustainable."

Mr Mallard said the nation's biggest dairy company, Fonterra, had a lot of farmers who had "over-intensified", but the company also valued its clean, green image in overseas markets.

"They are going to -- like many of us -- have to work through that balancing act," he said. "If they're seen, at any stage, to undermine the clean, green image then brand damage will result from that."

Asked why regional councils had proved ineffective at stopping degradation of water quality because of farm run-off such as effluent from animals, Mr Mallard said some councils had been very slow.

"It may well be that some of the regional councils, in the past, have been quite closely aligned with people who have an interest in intensification rather water quality," said Mr Mallard.

In the case of run-off from farm pastures, he predicted that efforts to control nitrous oxide emissions under the greenhouse gases emissions trading scheme would help reduce the flow of nitrates into groundwater and rivers.

Use of nitrification inhibitors would not only reduce losses of nitrous oxide, but also the leaching of nitrates.

Mr Mallard yesterday announced the Government has appointed a four-person board to lead public consultation on a proposed national policy statement which will guide councils on water quality.

Judge David Sheppard has been appointed as chairman and Kevin Prime, Jenni Vernon and Dr Jon Harding as board members.

The inquiry will be concerned with the standard for recreational use, which was likely to be that for every 1000 people who swim in the waterway, no more than 17 people should be made sick by the contact with the water.

The proposed statement will guide councils to put in place concrete rules and plans to address competing demands, issues of contamination, and in areas such as Canterbury, declining supplies of lowland water.

"We have proposed in this policy statement that our freshwater resource meets the needs and aspirations of New Zealanders in a generation -- by 2035," Mr Mallard said.

He defended the time taken to develop the policy and said he would rather spend a couple of years to get the right settings for such a longterm issue.