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DairyNZ Welcomes Auditor General’s Freshwater Recommendations

DairyNZ has welcomed the Auditor-General’s call for a standardised method of reporting freshwater quality.

It is one of several recommendations to come from a performance audit on four regional councils’ management for freshwater quality released today (27th Sept 2011).

DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackle says the dairy industry is acutely aware of its contribution to water quality issues and recognises the need to work closely with central and local government to address the issues highlighted by the Auditor General and many others.

“The recommendation for standard measures for reporting water quality must start with a clear definition of the values our water quality is being managed for. We often see technical reports covering a range of physical and chemical indicators, including those presented in the Auditor General’s report. Some indicators may be going up, others down and some are unchanged.”

He says building a picture of overall water quality often then comes down to individual interpretation.

“For example, if nitrates are increasing and phosphates are decreasing does this mean water quality is improving or deteriorating? The fact is we don’t know, unless we link the water quality indicators back to the actual values that the community wants protected. If a waterway is valued for swimming, then we can monitor the appropriate indicators, rather than just a grab-bag of potentially meaningless chemistry tests.”

Dr Mackle says this matters because water quality monitoring is hugely expensive for rate payers, but poor policy making based on inappropriate interpretation of water quality monitoring results is potentially much more damaging.

“Failing to measure the right indicators may allow irreversible damage to the environment, but misinterpreting indicators may also drive policy changes that severely restrict regional economic growth without solving the environmental problem.”

Dr Mackle says DairyNZ supports the development of efficient and effective policies around controlling the impacts of land use on the community values.

“We have to understand what the community wants – what it wants protected or enhanced – and we would support the development of effective and efficient policies that would enable that to happen.”

He says the Auditor General’s report focuses very strongly on dairy and managing freshwater challenges for regional councils.

“Dealing with dairy is a useful example with which to review regional council performance, but we all contribute to the loss of waterway values. Intensive and extensive farming, forestry, fishing, hydro dams, towns and cities all contribute to the loss of the things we value in our waterways. If we only focus on dairying, when the issue’s much wider than that, we’re not going to generate the outcomes the community wants or needs. You could have dairy farmers significantly improving their performance – and that’s something we’re serious about achieving – but if you’ve got a city council breaching effluent discharge rules, that’s not something the dairy industry can do anything about.”

Collaboration between dairy industry and councils is increasing and already starting to generate significant environmental benefits (e.g. a collaborative approach to effluent non-compliance in Canterbury has seen significant non-compliance fall from 19% in 2008/09 to 8% in 2009/10).

“DairyNZ, and its industry partners, are working closely with the regional councils to help improve freshwater quality. The challenges the councils face in managing this are immense, and we will continue to work with them to achieve the best possible outcomes for dairy farmers and the community as a whole,” says Dr Mackle.

ENDS

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