Runoff Policy Blow to Farmers in Lake Area

Strategy will force farmers to get resource consent.

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TAUPO farmer Mike Phillips fears for future generations wanting to farm near Lake Taupo.

The Western Bay’s sheep and cattle farmer said Environment Waikato regional council’s strategy to protect Lake Taupo by “capping” nitrogen runoff into the lake would lead to farming becoming uneconomical in the area.

The draft strategy was announced last week. It is part of an $81 million project by local and central government to reduce nitrogen levels in the lake by 20 per cent in the next 15 years.

The regional council estimated 93 per cent of nitrogen entering the lake came from leaching of stock effluent through soil and into groundwater and rivers. The remaining 7 per cent came from urban septic tanks.

Nitrogen helped the growth of algae which decreased lake water clarity. Omori and Whakaipo Bay were closed in 2001 and 2003 because of toxic algal bloom.

To maintain the quality of lake water the regional council proposes to cap the amount of nitrogen entering the lake from the Taupo catchment. The cap will be calculated on the average stock effluent discharge on each farm in the past three years. Farmers will require resource consent to continue farming.

Mr Phillips owns the 800-hectare (2000-acre) Waikino Station overlooking the southern edge of Lake Taupo. He and his son, Ben, manage 10,000 stock units, comprising 70 per cent Romney sheep and 30 per cent Angus beef cattle.

He said that, if the policy were passed, farming would shift from a permitted activity to a discretionary activity requiring resource consent. “I’ve never heard of any sheep or beef farm in New Zealand requiring resource consent. It would be near impossible to farm here under the policy. The cap will stay in perpetuity and there will be no room to develop the business.”

Conversions to forestry would replace farming as trees are seen as a better option environmentally for limiting nitrogen runoff. Service industries such as shearing and fencing would be replaced by smaller forestry gangs.

“It could destroy rural communities,” Mr Phillips said. The cap would stop farmers being able to follow market trends and improve undeveloped land on their property.

The result would see many give up farming if they are not allowed to develop their business. Multiple ownership farms would be most affected as they are required to keep developing to show a return for shareholders.

“It’s like telling The Warehouse they have to keep selling the same old stock that no one wants any more.”

Mr Phillips said farmers’ relationship with the regional council was good, but many were frustrated by the policy. “What gives the right of a bureaucrat to tell me how to run my business. It’s morally wrong.”

Taupo Lake Care spokesman Graham Law said farmers had been initially targeted as the “villains”.

“But it is really about animals going about their daily business and farmers employing good farming practices.”

Mr Law said farmers would bear the brunt of improving the lake water quality.

Farmers have seen rates jump 36 per cent to contribute to the lake protection fund and overall it could cost them $100 million in the long term, he said. Submissions on the draft policy close on September 2.

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