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Brendon Burns
The calling-in of resource consent applications "makes
sense" because the issue of proposed large-scale dairy farm
development in the Omarama and Ohau area was too big for
Environment Canterbury to handle properly, Labour's water
quality spokesman Brendon Burns said yesterday.
Mr Burns, who was in the Omarama and Mackenzie area speaking
to people about the proposals, believed Environment Minister
Nick Smith needed to deal with the issue quickly.
While there had been a lot of focus on animal welfare issues,
he believed there were also broader issues at stake,
including the fragile environment of the area.
The site near Lake Ohau was one of the coldest and least
fertile areas in the country and a "hell of a lot" of
nitrate-based fertiliser and water would have to be applied
to have any chance to grow grass to feed thousands of cattle.
The potential environmental impacts on waterways in the area
were "quite scary", he said.
Dairy giant Fonterra had expressed concerns housing cows in
cubicle stables would be seen by competitors and the
international marketplace as being akin to factory farming
and "that's pretty frightening", Mr Burns said.
There were also concerns about the impact on the fastest
growing tourism destination in the country - the Mackenzie
district.
Those farming in the area understood its fragility.
They wanted to have access to water and there were already
applications from farmers either seeking new consents or
renewals.
Most of those applications were for "pretty traditional
farming activity" and "nothing of the scale" the three
proposals envisaged, he said.
North Otago Federated Farmers high country representative
Simon Williamson said other farmers seeking consents had been
"hooked up in the system", the issues they had were
"completely different" and it would be positive to have them
separated out.
Omarama Residents Association chairman Bill Gordon said there
had been a lot of discussion in the township during the
holiday period with visitors realising it was a contentious
issue.
The environmental impact was "clearly" everyone's focus.
