Otago Regional Council chief executive Graeme Martin said farmers should concentrate on managing their own dairy effluent systems rather than worrying about council enforcement of other sectors, because public pressure on them to improve their game would only increase.
"A good farmer, no matter what they are farming, should think about the issues and manage them, then they should have no fear of regional council regulatory staff or of some public push and shove."
The discussion document, the national policy statement for freshwater management, would significantly increase rules for any discharge to land or water which affected water quality.
Otago dairy farms operate as a permitted activity.
However, if the freshwater management report was adopted, Mr Martin said councils would have to add rules and regulations on activities such as dairy farming.
His advice to farmers was to improve their performance before what he called a "juggernaut of public opinion" forced tougher rules and regulations.
Farmers have complained of inconsistencies in effluent discharge enforcement, saying the council has shied away from prosecuting other farmers and municipalities over breaches for which they would be issued with infringement notices or prosecuted.
Mr Martin denied that was the case, but said it had taken many years to improve sewage and waste treatment at sites such as Fonterra's Stirling factory, Silver Fern Farms' Finegand works and Dunedin International Airport.
These required substantial funding and new technology and, like dairy farms, were given transition periods to comply.
Point discharge treatment of sewage had improved in Dunedin, Wanaka and the Queenstown Lakes district, and trials were under way at Kaka Point on a system for small communities. Finding those responsible for polluting in urban centres was difficult and there was little point continually prosecuting councils if the source could not be identified, he said.
The dairy industry was also going through a transition period, he said, but now those industries and councils were off the radar, the sector was under the spotlight.
The council's policy was that rather than prescribe what farmers should do to control effluent, it stated what they could not.
How they met those standards was up to them.
He said it was a low cost but effective system farmers should welcome.
"Do they want specifications they are required to work under, or do they want to be masters of their own property?"The system was particular to Otago, as most regional councils prescribed effluent treatment management systems.
Mr Martin said the success of the council's policy was illustrated by data from the recent Clean Streams Accord which showed Otago had one of the lowest rates of serious non-compliance in the country.
Responding to criticism that the council set plans, policed compliance and received the fines, Mr Martin said the council was following government legislation.
While not referring to last month's Dunedin City Council sewage spill in to the Kaikorai Stream, Mr Martin said any decision to prosecute had to meet several criteria, including whether a remedy or avoidance was starting to happen or was happening, and whether the party was significantly negligent.
The reality was that like speeding motorists, some got caught and some did not.
"It is prissy to try and point the finger at somebody else, because a fair catch is a fair catch, no matter where it is."
Despite their differences, Mr Martin said the Otago dairy industry and council should be proud of how effluent was managed in the province.
"It actually works very well. It should work better, there is no question, but it's about transition.
"I think there is pride to be held. It's good for our economy, it's good for the community, it's good for the speed and agility with which farming alters, adjusts and changes."