Hawea Flat residents who fear their drinking water supply will be tainted as a result of dairying in the area were told yesterday existing land uses, including lifestyle blocks, probably posed a greater risk.
A group of Hawea Flat residents were among about 80 people who attended the Otago Regional Council's water-quality forum in Cromwell which updated land owners on changes to the regional water plan for managing farm discharges.
A spokesman for a newly-formed Hawea Flat group, Preserve our Water, Mark Thomas, told a panel of council staff and councillors residents were concerned about the possibility dairy-farm effluent could affect drinking-water bores.
"We're all on bore water - the school, the kindergarten and the residents - and they're mostly shallow bores, about 8m deep," he said.
The group was formed in response to news a large-scale dairy farm was being established on Camp Hill Rd, the first for the area.
Although the dairy farm would be downstream of most of the residents, Mr Thomas said there was nothing to stop any number of dairy farms establishing in the district.
"Can the ORC guarantee the quality of our drinking water and the supply of it? If there's a problem will our water be tainted or our bores run dry?"
Council chief executive Graeme Martin said nobody had the right to discharge anything into waterways without permission.
"Everything we do and everything we propose here is aimed at minimising and avoiding any leaching into the groundwater."
"But dairy farms are far from the only activities that might cause leaching into groundwater. Existing land uses and how they are operated, including lifestyle blocks and septic-tank effluent, are treated just the same way by the council."
Council environmental information and science director John Threlfall said although there were no guarantees, it was unlikely the groundwater would be affected. It was already being monitored.
"If there's a problem, we'll address it . . . In fact, the land use that's there now is probably more damaging to the water quality."
Dairying was a "risk" but so were current farming operations - "and some will have to sharpen up their operation to meet the new standards," Dr Threlfall said.
Jeromy van Riel, of Hawea Flat, asked if there was any place in the country where drinking water had been unaffected by nearby dairy farming.
Mr Martin said it was dangerous to generalise by saying all dairy farming was bad for the environment.
"The publicity you hear is all about the bad dairy farmers but there are bad sheep farmers, bad deer farmers and bad examples of all kinds of land uses. You don't hear about the good ones."
