MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Welcome to this special edition of the Horizons Dairy e-newsletter.

As you are most likely aware, on the 3rd of April, Horizons received the Environment Court's decision on Wellington Fish & Game and the Environmental Defence Society’s application for declarations.

The focus of the declarations was on the implementation of rules in the One Plan that require resource consents for intensive farming activities (Rules 14-1 to 14-4 of the One Plan, covering land use and associated discharges). The two organisations sought declarations in respect of the process that Horizons must follow and the matters Horizons must consider when processing applications for resource consent under these rules.

I understand you may be nervous about what this ruling means for the intensive farming resource consent process as it applies to you, whether you have already been granted consent, you have a current application that has been lodged with Horizons, or you have yet to apply for an intensive farming consent.

The declarations issued by the Court have no direct effect on intensive farming consents that have already been granted. Those consents, and their conditions, remain valid.  Farmers with existing consents should continue to work to the conditions of their consents.

However, the declarations do have a direct impact on the way the Council must process and consider consent applications from the date of the Court's decision. This includes applications that have already been lodged with the Council.   

We are carefully considering the implications of the Court's decision. This process will take time. Council officers are making contact with all those who have a current application with the Council, to discuss the next steps in the processing of their applications.  

Here at Horizons, we respect that farmers will be looking for certainty as we move forward. Our purpose is to ensure that consent applications are robust and are processed and decided in accordance with the Resource Management Act (as informed by the Court's declarations). Of course we are also focused on improving water quality.

Despite the Court’s decision it is important to remember we are on the right path when it comes to water quality improvement. Prior to the Court’s decision, we were on track to reduce in excess of 200 tonnes of nitrogen once all of the estimated 400 consents for dairy farms had been processed. This is a significant achievement.

We appreciate that via regulatory and non-regulatory methods, farmers within our Region are committed to improving water quality. Horizons has a significant environmental monitoring programme across the Region and 10 years of water quality trends (January 2006 – December 2015) reveal that 58 per cent of the 36 sites monitored for total oxidised nitrogen (TON) show improvement. None are in decline. In the Manawatū Catchment, 16 sites have improving trends for TON and none are declining. In the Manawatū there are also no declining trends for E.coli, sediment, and dissolved reactive phosphorous. This is all positive news and something we need to acknowledge.

I encourage you to take the time to read through the Frequently Asked Questions we have put together below. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Horizons Rural Advice team on 0508 800 800.

Lastly, I also want to touch base on the weather event which occurred across our Region last week. While it did not play out as initially predicted, the anticipation of such an event can have a distressing effect on our rural community. I encourage you to look out for each other, and ask for support if you need it. A great resource for advice is the Rural Support Trust 0800 RURAL HELP.

Bruce Gordon, Chairman, Horizons Regional Council