Our Freshwater Future

December 2020

Water is a vital resource for our environmental, economic, social and cultural wellbeing. When summer finally arrives we will be making the most of it for swimming and recreation however, later in the season, we may have to start restricting the amount of water we use. These restrictions help to ensure there is sufficient water to sustain freshwater ecosystems and for future use. As New Zealanders, we rarely consider the possibility of not having water for drinking, bathing, recreation, collecting kai and growing produce.

Horizons has been working with communities across the Manawatū-Whanganui Region to improve water quality and environmental sustainability for many decades. This includes addressing issues such as excess sediment, nutrients and bacteria through reducing the impact of land use, urban and rural wastewater and industrial discharges.

Some of this work has been undertaken through our Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) and Freshwater programme. This includes subsidising riparian fencing and planting, and reducing sediment loss through erosion control, as well as three Jobs for Nature projects that have commenced this year. This has all been made possible by significant investment from central government, our ratepayers and the landowners themselves.

Our Freshwater Future is the way Horizons has chosen to represent all of the freshwater work we are undertaking in our region, encompassing both central government and local government regulatory and our non-regulatory work. This newsletter is the first of many we intend to send to help inform you on ways we can all work together to care for both the environment and our communities for generations to come.

Essential Freshwater Package

On 28 May 2020, the Minister for the Environment announced central government's national direction for halting the degradation of our rivers, lakes and streams. The Essential Freshwater announcements set a clear direction for Aotearoa – stop the degradation of our waterways. We know that there is work to do to improve the quality of New Zealand’s rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries, and wetlands. We also know that Horizons Regional Council, iwi and our wider communities, are a key part of the solution.

From 3 September 2020, the revised National Policy Statement – freshwater management (NPS-FM), new National Environmental Standards for freshwater (NES-FW), and the amended Resource Management Act (RMA) s360 regulations for stock exclusion and measurement and reporting of water takes came into effect.

Please access the following links to see the relevant documents:

A guiding principle is to uphold Te Mana o te Wai which means first protecting the life-supporting capacity of the water. The second obligation is to provide for human health needs, and only then can water be used for other purposes, provided it does not affect the mauri (life force or essence) of the water.

We appreciate the new system for freshwater management will have a direct impact on iwi, hapū, landowners and communities in the region.

At a regional level, there is much to be done to deliver the Essential Freshwater package within the ambitious timeframes set. The One Plan (Horizons’ combined Regional Policy and Regional Plan) already includes much of what is required by these new regulations, however changes will need to be made in order to comply.

Where possible, resourcing to support the initial stages of implementation is being sought from existing budgets and through re-prioritisation of other activities. Further implementation costs will be considered through Horizons’ 2021-31 Long-term Plan process in March 2021 however, early indications suggest the estimated cost will be over $10 million and up to $15 million over the first three to four years. This includes resourcing for science and policy, as well as iwi capacity and advice, and community engagement.

For now, the issues of immediate concern in our region are intensive winter grazing, stock exclusion and stockholding areas – including getting initial advice out to you. This newsletter includes these three topics as well as a timeline for compliance, an introduction to Horizons’ implementation programme ‘Our Freshwater Future’, an introduction to Te Mana o te Wai and links to further information.

Our Freshwater Future

While Horizons’ One Plan covers many of the same areas as the National Policy Statement for Freshwater, changes are needed to give effect to the new national direction. A revised One Plan needs to be in place by December 2024. ‘Our Freshwater Future’ sets out Horizons’ work programme and draft implementation ‘road map’ to respond to the new requirements, which you can access by clicking on these links.

A key part of this programme is that we seek an understanding of what our communities value in relation to freshwater and use this to guide our regional policies. This engagement is ongoing and includes some of the events, past and future, listed below.

Horizons’ website also has an Essential Freshwater area dedicated to the central government’s new regulations. This includes a timeline outlining deadlines for compliance, factsheets, compliance flow charts, frequently asked questions and a summary of the Essential Freshwater package.

Te Mana o te Wai

The NPS-FM 2020 is underpinned by Te Mana o te Wai framework; a set of six guiding principles and a hierarchy of obligations. It refers to the essential value of water, putting the health and wellbeing at the forefront of decision making, before providing primarily for human health needs, and then other uses.

There is encouragement and requirement for tangata whenua involvement in freshwater management; and the integration of Māori knowledge and practices (mātauranga Māori) into regional planning, and the associated decision making process.

Horizons recognises that involvement in the NPS-FM is likely to have a significant draw on iwi and hapū capacity. This presents an opportunity to work closely with iwi and hapū to ensure that they are resourced to participate. We hope that this will build both strategic and operational relationships that will continue into the future.

Read MfE's Te Mana o te Wai factsheet or watch their brief explainer videos.

Timeline for NES-FW

One of the more immediate requirements for landowners is the roll out of the new NES-FW, which sets out new criteria for farming activities such as intensive winter grazing, land use intensification and synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use.

The One Plan already has rules for many of these activities. You may need a consent under the NES–FW (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) in addition to any content requirements under the One Plan, so please check both documents. This timeline will be added to our website and e-newsletters as more dates are released.

Please familiarise yourself with the NES-FW requirements so that, if you have not already done so, you can begin to implement good practice now and start working toward compliance to ensure you can meet the deadlines outlined above.

Landowners and Horizons work together to improve water quality

Ian McNab is one of Horizons’ Rural Advisors who is out in the field every week talking to farmers about freshwater compliance. On 15 October he visited Cole Simmons’ 190 hectare sheep and beef farm, Brightside, south east of Dannevirke in the Tararua District.

Cole has had an Horizons’ Whole Farm Plan since 2014, which includes a plan for pole planting to mitigate hillside erosion, and improving water quality through fencing off waterways. Cole is concerned about how the new NES-FW regulations will affect him and wants to make sure he is complying with them, as well as doing the right thing to improve the environment. The NES-FW has introduced rules governing stock holding areas, which includes Cole’s wintering pad where he feeds 50 beef cows for 75 days to reduce pugging damage to his soils and pastures.

Stock exclusion from waterways

Livestock entering water bodies contaminate the water directly and damage the banks of the water body. This is particularly serious with cattle, deer and pigs. Stock also trample the beds of water bodies, breaking down the streambank, leading to sediment runoff and habitat damage.

Excluding stock from natural wetlands, lakes, and rivers more than one metre wide is intended to reduce freshwater pollution, prevent bank erosion and sediment loss, and allow riparian plants to grow. Fencing waterways is one of the simplest and most direct ways of keeping stock out waterways and their banks and margins.

The new regulations include rules for stock exclusion from lakes, wide rivers, and wetlands, and apply to any person who owns or controls beef cattle, dairy cattle, deer, pigs or dairy support cattle. Please note these regulations do not apply to sheep.

Existing fences

A permanent fence closer than three metres to a waterway and in place prior to 3 September 2020 which meets the criteria below DOES NOT have to be moved.

i. A permanent fence that ‘effectively excludes’ stock from the bed of the river or lake that is:

a post and batten fence with driven or dug fence posts; OR
an electric fence with at least 2 electrified wires and driven or dug fence posts; OR
a deer fence.

OR

ii. Riparian vegetation that ‘effectively excludes’ stock from the bed of the river or lake.

For further information on stock exclusion download our brochure.

Intensive Winter Grazing

Within the new regulations, intensive winter grazing means grazing livestock on an annual forage crop at any time in the period that begins on 1 May and midnight 30 September of the same year. These rules apply to you if your property comprises 5 hectares or more of horticulture, 20 hectares or more of pasture or arable crops, or 20 hectares or more of a combination of any of these.

Applications deadline

All intensive winter grazing that does not comply with permitted activity standards will need resource consent. Consents cannot be granted until 1 May 2021 therefore we are not encouraging people to apply until closer to this time. You can continue to carry out intensive winter grazing throughout winter 2021 so long as the scale remains the same and your consent is lodged before 31 October 2021. Please note, IWG may be permitted where a farm has a freshwater farm plan that certifies that the conditions below can be met.

For further information on intensive winter grazing download our brochure.

Ko Wai a Runga – Water comes first

In summary, freshwater is a vital resource to us all. Horizons works in partnership with our communities to protect and enhance the region’s waterways. In addition to increasing our non-regulatory work programmes, we are working on interpreting the Essential Freshwater regulations and have started community engagement to better understand our communities’ values in relation to freshwater. This will be an ongoing process with this information helping guide changes to our One Plan.

This is the first of many newsletters we will be producing. We encourage you to share with your own networks and get involved in the conversations when we come out to our communities early next year.

Protecting our freshwater future by working together is a goal we can all set ourselves.

Further information

For further information on the new regulations please see the Frequently Asked Questions on our website.

We are also preparing various factsheets to help you interpret the new NES-FW regulations. These are being added to our website as they are produced.

We hope this newsletter has given you a good overview of freshwater at Horizons, as well as clarified some of your questions around the new Essential Freshwater package. We have focused on stock exclusion and intensive winter grazing as these are areas we feel need to be addressed early in the process. If there is a particular area you’d like us to cover in the next newsletter, please email us at info@ourfreshwaterfuture.co.nz.