The Government's Resource Management Bill, due to be introduced later this year, would require councils to improve the quality of cost-benefit analysis undertaken in support of important planning decisions.
However, Federated Farmers South Island regional policy manager Matt Harcombe said any changes to the Act would "have no impact" on the Otago Regional Council's water plan change 6A.
The change would introduce tougher controls on the levels of nitrogen leachate to groundwater, which farmers across Otago have criticised as unachievable, and although Mr Harcombe welcomed the proposed RMA changes, from a farmers' perspective it was was too early to tell if they would result in "a more balanced conversation".
He said in the past the costs to individuals and communities had not been addressed in local council cost-benefit analysis.
"So when it comes to something like water quality, while that might be the most effective cost-benefit option from the council's perspective, it may not be from an economic efficiency point of view.
"At the moment, it is simply too easy for a council to justify bringing in a new rule to protect water quality, landscape or indigenous vegetation, because that is what the community wants, when all the costs of implementing that rule fall on individual landowners."
Farmers in the Waitaki district have estimated they would lose $47 million in income to implement the council's proposed plan change, but Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said the RMA changes would have "ramifications" for projects such as the ORC water plan, which were were "contrary to the region's economic wellbeing".
"The ORC will now need to take account of any economic impacts their policies have on farmers. I hope in their water plan, the ORC seriously considers not only water quality but also the economic impact of their policies.
"Farmers need certainty, not fleecing. Based on the plan that was presented, I do fear that there are going to be a number of farming operations that are going to be severely economically compromised."
This proposal, along with another limiting to six months the maximum time a council can take to process medium-sized consents, was announced on Tuesday by Environment Minister Amy Adams.
ORC policy and resource management director Fraser McRae said although the Bill would introduce changes the council would have to "react to", he was happy that the council had already conducted an adequate cost-benefit analysis as part of its proposed water plan change.
"As far as the plan change process goes in plan change 6A, council considered the economic impact at the time of approving for notification the plan change, and those have been reinforced by submitters at the farm level and industry level, and those would be considered as part of the process of finalising the plan change."
He said a hearing panel was deliberating on the information received from public hearings, but would "not rush" to a decision.
"Essentially, once we get it done, we hope we get it right."
Otago Fish and Game environmental officer Peter Wilson said there was already an environmental "bottom line" in the Act, and he would be concerned if that was to change.
