Christchurch, 28 June 2024—
New Zealand’s freshwater management needs to improve at both the national and local level, says the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers (NZFFA). Current legislation to weaken environmental standards threatens both our international reputation and our ecological and public health at home.
“As a primary producing country, we must meet client countries’ and consumers’ expectations in the UK, EU and North America,” Dr Trolove said on Friday. “We must also meet the expectations of our local society,” said Dr Trolove in a submission presented on behalf of the NZFFA to a select committee for the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
Dr Peter Trolove graduated as a veterinarian in 1974 and trained in fisheries science as well.
“I have witnessed the good, the bad, and the very ugly side of New Zealand farming over a period fifty years plus,” he said. “And the current government undermines both our domestic goals and international export targets.”
NZFFA opposes two parts of the bill: the first is the omission of the hierarchy of obligations contained in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) from resource consent applications and decision-making processes; and the second is the repeal of intensive winter grazing regulations.
Dr. Peter Trolove – “retain our current freshwater regulations”
Vital to Retain Standards
Dr Trolove said the existing hierarchy of obligations gives first priority to the environment, second priority to drinking water and third priority to economic exploitation of freshwater such as irrigation.
“It’s vital for environmental and economic reasons to retain our current freshwater regulations,” Trolove said. “As imperfect as they are, they reflect the small but gradual progress our nation has made under administrations the last decade. This current coalition wants to allow more pollution, and this threatens public and environmental health as well as our national brand.”
Canterbury residents have already experienced the resulting adverse impacts on source water.
“The John Key led National government is the author of this catastrophe,” said Trolove. “And Key is now advising the current coalition to take us back to the most anti-democratic, anti-environmental period in New Zealand history.” Trolove noted Key sacked the democratically elected government of New Zealand’s second largest city so his political hacks could rubberstamp unsustainable and polluting irrigation schemes and industrial dairy’s explosion. “The direct result of Key’s legacy is that Canterbury has the highest bowel cancer rate on Earth.”
“The Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) exceeded its targets in terms of greatly expanding the area of irrigated land in Canterbury,” he said. “ECan has failed to meet a single target for water quality, quantity, or the health of aquatic ecosystems and freshwater fisheries has been achieved since developing the CWMS in 2009.”
Canterbury’s rivers and groundwater are grossly over-allocated with no mitigation evident, Trolove noted. And Lake Ellesmere is badly polluted. And ECan’s neglect to monitor and enforce the Rakaia’s Water Conservation Order has damaged the river’s outstanding values for native freshwater life as well as angling and jetboating amenity and ecotourism potential. With the National Party’s blessing and ECan’s dereliction of duty, Industrial Dairy has polluted much of the groundwater beneath the Canterbury plains with nitrate, E. coli and other pathogens.
“This has numerous impacts on public health such as blue-baby syndrome, short gestation and premature births and increased risks of bowel and other cancers.”
Keystone species disappearing
In addition there has been a severe loss of biodiversity, with species like Stokell’s smelt, a foundation of the river’s food chain, now endangered. “This has resulted in the abrupt decline in five species of native birds, such as terns, dotterels and gulls. And the angling and jetboating opportunities for both locals and tourists have been destroyed.”
“This is a high a price to pay for a tax-free capital gain benefiting a few corporate Canterbury farmers who received significant subsidies from the government’s $435 million irrigation enhancement fund.” he said. “And it destroys for once and for all any legitimate claim to New Zealand’s ‘clean green’ branding vital to exports.”
Canterbury residents realize environmental vandalism followed the death of local democracy, and the region is now a divided community with a distrust of central government and the farmer-dominated Canterbury Regional Council (ECan). Like the Fast-track Development bill, further legislation to allow more water pollution threatens a diversified economy, public health, and national brand.
Canterbury’s drinking water is now unhealthy with the consequence of sickness and even death. Aligning with overseas studies linking nitrates to bowel cancer South Canterbury’s bowel cancer rates are among the highest in the world. In Canterbury toxic algae blooms, nitrate and biological contamination are commonplace.
“Failing to deliver good source water quality means higher healthcare costs,” said Dr Trolove. “This puts an unnecessary burden on an already over-stretched health system and costs the taxpayer. Everywhere you look, the government is subsidizing the dairy industry by allowing it to pollute and pulling it out of the ETS.”
Sliding Downhill
In Canterbury nitrate levels are increasing every year, the result of cow urine going into groundwater. The biggest source of nitrate in Canterbury is cow urine.
This is all because there are more cows, due to more dairy conversions – more intensive cows per hectare.” he said. “Environment Canterbury and the dairy industry may think this is ‘progress.’ But to the rest of us, it’s taking us back to a dated, unsustainable business model.”
Regulations are not to hassle farmers, Trolove added. Sensible freshwater regulation keeps the incentive for private profits from destroying public good.
“We have allowed development to occur ahead of judicious regulation,” he said. ECan has issued tens of thousands of consents without a sound understanding of ecological effects, he said.
Trolove also observed that pressure from the dairy and irrigation industries has prevented ECan for following its statutory responsibilities to protect the public and future generations. “Private profit has come at the cost of massive public loss,” he said. ” ECan has ignored both the RMA and Water Conservation Orders. As a result, they’ve burnt the natural heritage that belongs to all New Zealanders, including future generations.”
Export Markets
Dr Trolove added that the policies don’t even make good business sense. As a primary producing country, New Zealand must meet client countries and consumer expectations in export markets in the UK, EU, North America and others, he pointed out.
“Deregulate at your peril. The economic power lies with the consumer. Consumers are not obliged to buy our produce and will not if we are to repeat another round of dirty dairying,” he warned.
The crunch point is that the policies don’t even make economic sense for the country. Is there a select group who will benefit? Of course there is; the dairy industry, and the rest of us will pay for the cleanup.
Today, everything seems geared to benefit the corporates and in this case, from dairy farming corporates to electricity corporates etc, aided by lazy public servants and complicit politicians, in the latter case think of John Key and Nick Smith and a few others to boot in the coalition government – think Shane Jones and Christopher Bishop with the Fast Track Approval Bill.
Agree with two earlier comments. There’s a great quote by the late John F Kennedy (JFK) US president who said “Each generation must deal anew with the raiders, with the scramble to use public resources for private profit and with the tendency to prefer short-run profits to long-run necessities….”
I feel compelled to say “thank goodness” for the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers and the sterling work of Dr Peter Trolove. The Federation is not afraid to poke its head above the parapet, but it raises questions (a) why has ECan, the word “environment” in its full title and (b) where are Fish and Game NZ, North Canterbury F&G and the Department of Conservation entrusted to look after native fish and arguably by its statutory mission, trout and salmon. Where is and who is, the Minister of Conservation? In case the minister and DoC don’t understand, fish whether native or trout and salmon, need quality water to thrive. Sadly DoC and F&G appear AWOL.
The degradation of our freshwater can be be tracked back to government actions focused on economic growth excluding environmental considerations.
The Ministry for the Environment, MAF, and MBIE, all helped develop the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and advised John Key’s cabinet on covert options on how to implement it. The Ecan Act was adopted as the method to circumvent Canterbury’s WCOs that passed accountability down to Ecan commissioners and “independent Hearing commissioners” thus protecting the politicians from push back from voters.
The fast-track approvals bill is simply a cruder version of the same, attempting to grow the economy regardless of environmental costs.
“Catastrophic Ecan” is the outcome with its delay, defer, deflect and deceive strategies. This is not sustainable implementation of the RMA. The net economic benefits are proving less than the true environmental costs.
Despite this the Coalition government seems unable to find a better way forward.
It is dinosaur thinking, from a group of old fossils. Non Tariff Measures (NTMs) have been identified as the next major stumbling block by MFAT for our high value products and services. Will people keep buying NZ wine once they find out the environmental degradation that is happening from mass production on valley floors? The nitrate levels in the Wairau River are at alarming levels, according to one of my viticultarlist friends. We have got mad cow disease!