Special edition February 2017Tēnā koutou Last week the Ministry for Environment announced their 2017 Clean Water Package; a set of proposals and a new $100 million fund designed to improve freshwater across the country. See key points and some Bay of Plenty context below. Anyone can give feedback on the proposals by making a submission to Ministry for the Environment (MfE) before 5.00pm, Friday 28 April 2017. Council staff will be reviewing the detail of these proposals in the coming weeks and Regional Councillors will meet to consider the implications for our local communities and current work. Fencing off farm animalsMinistry for the Environment (MfE) has proposed new national rules for excluding stock from waterways. Together with landowners we’ve made great progress on fencing Bay of Plenty waterways in recent years, to protect them from stock damage and defecation. Region-wide we’ve achieved 75 percent protection along stream margins so far, and even more in our most vulnerable catchments. Farm animals are now excluded from:
New Fund for Freshwater ImprovementsMfE has established a new $100m Freshwater Improvement Fund to improve the management of New Zealand’s lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater and wetlands. It’s now open for applications and closes midday 13 April 2017. In this financial year the Regional Council will spend $24 million on the work we deliver in water quality and quantity, and we’re planning to spend even more next year. In many instances the water quality we’re seeing now is the result of land use and practices that occurred more than 20 years ago – we started our work on water more than a decade ago. Turning the tide is a big job that will need everyone’s help to achieve it, so every extra bit of funding and community action counts. National goal for swimmabilityMfE has produced maps of water quality suitability for swimming, based on projections of pre-2013 E.coli and blue-green algae sampling results. They’ve set a goal for 90 percent of NZ waterways to be suitable for swimming by 2040, based on the grading system used in those maps. The MfE maps identify 86 percent of the Bay of Plenty region’s waterways as already acceptable for swimming. They also highlight some of the waterways (such as Rotorua Lakes, Kaituna and Wairoa Rivers, Nukuhou and Kaiate Streams) where we’ve been working closely with landowners to improve water quality in recent years. We're starting to see improving trends at most of these locations as a result of our collaborative work. The most recent, up-to date information from actual samples taken from popular Bay of Plenty swimming locations is available through the ‘Can I swim here?’ function at www.lawa.org.nz Regional Council will continue our work and actions to improve water quality throughout the region, so that our environment is one we are proud to leave our mokopuna (grandchildren). Proposed changes to Freshwater National Policy StatementThe Government has proposed a suite of amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2014 (NPS-FM). See the consultation document for details. The National Freshwater Policy Statement sets out central government direction on how local government will manage fresh water. This guides Regional Council’s planning and policy work. The proposed amendments cover:
Regional Council currently uses a broad range of indicators to assess and manage overall water quality. These include water temperature and nutrient levels (which can affect blue-green algae growth), as well as clarity and macro-invertebrate (aquatic insects, snails, shrimps and worm) sampling and Mataurangi Māori alongside our western science. See www.boprc.govt.nz/freshwaterfutures for updates on our current work to implement the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. |