The Otago Regional Council’s minimum flow policy delays will come at a cost to the environment, writes Niall Watson.
The Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) recent decision to abandon a Water Plan change setting minimum river flows for Central Otago rivers raises red flags.
At face value there is logic in deferring the plan change until other policy elements including primary allocation limits (the amount of water irrigators can take from a river) and identification of recently required "freshwater management units" (FMUs), can be addressed.
But the decision stalls water policy development after more than two years of preparatory work and public consultation in advance of the important October 2021 deadline for the phase-out of mining privileges.
Most Central Otago catchments are over-allocated due to the granting of century-old mining privileges to take water.
That means much of the summer low flow in Central Otago’s rivers is taken for irrigation, leaving depleted rivers or dry river beds.
Any delay in minimum flow setting and related policy linkages leaves hundreds of mining privileges expiring in October 2021 without an adequate policy framework for processing replacement Resource Management Act (RMA) consents. That is likely to result in muddled decision-making and poor environmental outcomes.
Some replacement consents have already been granted with mediocre environmental conditions, little transparency (because they are not publicly notified), and no wider community input.
Underlying policy problems were going to be addressed in the same plan change as minimum flows.
They are on hold as well.
Existing ORC policy creates a perverse incentive to use as much water as possible in line with efficiency requirements to establish formal records of water use. Records of water use are needed to support applications for replacement consents.
Farm businesses in many over-allocated catchments have been investing in irrigation infrastructure with some vigour in advance of minimum flows or even replacement RMA consents. Irrigators have used efficiency gains to expand the area under irrigation. This improves farm productivity but makes businesses more vulnerable to restrictions on abstracting water. This should be worrying for everyone in the region. The longer it takes for the ORC to resolve policy issues, the greater the expansion of irrigation and the bigger the economic cost of environmental restoration.
Irrigators’ strong support for the ORC’s recent delay to minimum flow setting may be related in part to a preference for the present patchy policy framework rather than starting a public process leading to more explicit policies. A delay means there is likely to be continued investment in irrigation infrastructure and expansion of irrigation despite the clear risk.
The more people invest, the more painful it will be when the ORC moves to meet its environmental obligations. Remember in 1991 the Government decided mining privileges, which were issued as perpetual rights without regard to the environment, had to go.
They gave irrigators 30 years to transition to RMA consents which require water extraction to be within environmental limits. The 30 years lead time is up in three short years.
The Otago Fish & Game Council’s expectation for the future of Central Otago rivers is for continuous flows over summer, less weed, more productive and diverse freshwater habitats and healthier rivers overall. Throwing out the minimum flow plan change may jeopardise that outcome.
- Niall Watson is the former chief executive of the Otago Fish & Game Council.
