Regional Council approves Lake Rotomā Action Plan

Environment Bay of Plenty has approved the Lake Rotomā Action Plan, which looks at what interventions should be carried out to protect and improve the lake’s water quality.

The Lake Rotomā Action Plan has nine core actions aimed at reducing nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus – into the lake to ultimately achieve the water quality Tropic Level Index (TLI) target of 23.

Primary sources of nutrients to the lake are from septic tanks and nutrients leaching into the lake from farming, in particular sheep, beef and dairy grazing.

Environment Bay of Plenty Chairman John Cronin said the action plan was a community document.

“It was developed in consultation with the community and all parts of the community are working together to improve water quality in Rotomā and reduce the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen to the lake,” he said.

Chairman Cronin said the key action in the plan was the sewerage system. Rotorua District Council has committed to completing sewage reticulation of all houses and public toilets along the southern shore of Lake Rotomā by 2011/12, which will meet most of the nutrient reduction target set for Lake Rotomā – 250kg/yr of phosphorus and 1,320kg/yr of nitrogen.

Environment Bay of Plenty will adopt a stewardship approach to farm land management with landowners of the two main farm blocks in the Lake Rotomā catchment.

“This is a voluntary approach which allows landowners to work cooperatively with the regional council and choose which nutrient management options to implement on their land,” Chairman Cronin said. “As a partner in any stewardship agreement, we will be able to closely monitor progress made towards implementing nutrient management practices and their success.”

Lakeside wetland planting, looking at alternative land uses and investigating and monitoring the use of innovative technologies also form the list of core actions.

The Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Strategy Group, a partnership between Rotorua District Council, Te Arawa Lakes Trust, Environment Bay of Plenty and central government, approved the action plan at its meeting on 12 November 2009. Consultation on the draft Lake Rotomā Action Plan closed in July last year.

ENDS

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