Our Freshwater Future

December 2022

Welcome to the sixth edition of Horizons Regional Council’s Oranga Wai Our Freshwater Future e-newsletter. Oranga Wai is the way Horizons has chosen to represent all of the freshwater work we are undertaking in our region, encompassing both central government reforms and our own work programmes. 

We hope you will find it useful. Please forward it on to anyone you think would be interested and if you haven’t already, sign up to receive future copies here.  If you have areas you would like us to cover in the next newsletter, or any questions, please email info@ourfreshwaterfuture.co.nz.

This edition provides an update on what’s been happening behind the scenes over the past few months, information about our rural roadshow, reminders about requirements for key National Environmental Standards (NES), and information on upcoming engagement on outstanding water bodies and water recreation spots as part of our work for a revised One Plan.

What's been happening?

Long-term visions for freshwater

Over the past few months a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to assess the feedback from a previous engagement round where we sought visions for freshwater in the Freshwater Management Units (FMUs) you live, work and play in.

This community engagement took place in April and May 2022 and we collected vision statements via a survey on our website. Since then we have reviewed the submissions and are still working through tangata whenua feedback. Once we have incorporated tangata whenua feedback into the visions we will seek Councillor agreement in principle.

Following that, the new visions will form the basis of revisions to the One Plan which will be out for further public engagement mid-2024. To view the visions and more information about the engagement that occurred see here.

For further information and a summary of the feedback see here. This feedback will help inform new objectives and policies for our Regional Policy Statement, otherwise known as the One Plan. We plan to socialise possible changes to those objectives and policies around March/April 2023 so will reach back out to you then.

We are working through a separate process with our tangata whenua partners to identify the Māori freshwater values and visions.

Preparing for upcoming stages

We have also been steadily chipping away at preparation for upcoming engagement rounds in 2023.

This engagement includes outstanding water bodies and water recreation spots that we talk about a bit further down, and collating an extensive amount of scientific information to provide context for informed decision making for upcoming rounds. This includes determining baseline states of our freshwater and modelling to understand possible impact and achievability of possible scenarios.

This graphic provides a reminder of engagement rounds that are yet to come and don’t forget you can learn about the current state of freshwater in your FMU at any time on our website. More detailed information on each round, and how you can be involved, will be coming over the next few months.

Tangata whenua engagement

Our staff have worked extensively with tangata whenua throughout the region on the freshwater reforms under the banner ‘Oranga Wai’.

To date a draft Regional Statement on Te Mana o te Wai is underway with further commentary added for certain parts of the region that require a more localised context.

Tangata whenua have collaboratively expressed their position to Horizons on how water should be viewed, their ideals for how all should treat water, and have begun to provide Horizons with unique Māori freshwater values.

NES updates

Since our last e-newsletter there have been some key milestones reached for the National Environmental Standards (NES) that we would like to remind our rural communities about.

Intensive Winter Grazing

On 1 November regulations to better control the effects of intensive winter grazing came into effect. If you’re planning intensive winter grazing operations for the 2023 season onwards, you will need to be familiar with the new intensive winter grazing regulations and requirements.

These rules apply to you if your property includes five 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. If you can meet all of the Permitted Activity criteria described in this factsheet no resource consent will be required.

If consent is required, we ask that you register yourself so that we can prioritise consenting high risk activities over low and medium ones. However, any farmer who wishes to apply for consent, regardless of where they might fall within the priority list, is welcome to do so.

Please see here for all the information you need to know. You can also contact either our Consents Planning or Rural Advice teams on 0508 800 800 for further information or guidance if you have any questions.

Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser rules

Another standard to note is that since 1 July 2021, all farms in the Horizons Region over 20 hectares with any grazed land must comply with the new nitrogen cap regulation.

This regulation states no more than 190 kilograms of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser per hectare may be applied per year to pastoral land. If you exceed the 190kg/ha/year nitrogen cap you are required to apply for a resource consent so please get in touch with our Rural Advice Team on 0508 800 800.

There is also now a requirement for all dairy farmers to report their synthetic nitrogen fertiliser usage, even if they apply less than the 190 kg/ha/year cap, from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.

This includes those that apply 0 kg/ha/year. We’d like to remind farmers that this reporting should now with us via Ravensdown’s HawkEye, Balance’s MyBallance or the regional sector’s web portal named N-Cap – if you haven’t submitted it yet please do so as soon as possible.

For more information about these synthetic nitrogen rules please see here.

Freshwater Farm Plans update

The Freshwater Farm Plan cabinet paper was released by Ministry for the Environment last month. Horizons is nineth in the order of the national roll-out which means we’ll probably start rolling them out around our region sometime in 2024. We will share more information as we can, and note that probable Plan content which can be used from existing farm environment plans incudes:

Catchment Challenges Values & Context (CCVC) – explains catchment freshwater issues
Detailed farm description
Risks – inherent (land, soil and climate) and management risk
Action plan – ties farm risk to catchment issues that need to be addressed

Community engagement on top spots

To help inform freshwater regulations for our region we’re asking three things of you: what are your top spots for freshwater recreation, what water bodies do you think are remarkable, and whether you agree with the criteria proposed to determine which water bodies are remarkable.

We want to know where and how you recreate with freshwater, from swimming in the Ōroua, rafting down the Rangitīkei, or water-skiing across Lake Wiritoa. You can do this through the map we’ve created, simply drop a pin on a location and tell us what you do there. This will help inform where we monitor water quality for swimming and other water-based activities in the future.

We also want to know which freshwater bodies across the region you believe are spectacular, remarkable or just downright awesome – officially known as ‘outstanding water bodies’.

We have proposed criteria that those water bodies would need to be assessed against to qualify as being outstanding and we’ve made a list of the ones we think could be outstanding. We want to know if you agree with the ones on our list or if there are others we have missed. You can tell us by filling out our online survey and tell us what you think of the criteria.

Rural roadshow

Through October and November, Horizons has held meetings with our rural communities in various locations around our region to discuss the freshwater reforms and what they mean for the One Plan.

The roadshow has been a great chance for the public to chat directly with our Rural Advice, Science and Policy teams, and learn more about how rural communities can get involved in the Oranga Wai process.

The meetings have been well attended with some great discussion that have been informative for all of us. Thank you to those that came along and met with us, if you missed the meetings and would like to see the content, please email info@ourfreshwaterfuture.co.nz.

Finally we will likely be back out with another roadshow in winter next year, if you have any thoughts on how we can get notice to right people about this, please let us know.

Water allocation during summer

As the warmer weather settles in and rainfall decreases, please remember to check and follow the conditions of your water take consent if you have one. This includes keeping an eye on river levels (available via our environmental data platform), especially during low flows as the water level may suddenly drop to below consented minimum flows.

If you have a telemetered site you can check this information regularly via Water Matters.

Swim spot monitoring

Every year, a team of Horizons research assistants head out to swim spots across the region to collect water quality information that helps you decide where it is ok to swim. Our team monitor for potentially toxic algae (cyanobacteria) and bacteria (E. coli at freshwater sites or Enterococci at beaches) as these are the best indicators to let you know if you might get sick from contact with the water.

E. coli samples are sent to an independent accredited lab for testing, with results being made available within in 1-3 days. E. coli results are updated weekly and are available alongside national Can I Swim Here? data at lawa.org.nz.

The percentage of cyanobacteria from the bankside is first determined, and if cyanobacteria is seen, a more intensive in-stream survey is conducted. Cyanobacteria results are made available immediately upon the team’s return to the office as the bacteria is visually assessed at each swim spot.

Cyanobacteria in rivers forms black mats attached to rocks in or above the water. In lakes, look for bright green scums on the shore and on top of the water. These can be harmful if you come into close contact with them particularly for children and dogs. Green algae is often present in rivers over the summer. Often swimmers think this is a sign the water isn’t safe to swim, this is typically a non-toxic algae and is unlikely to cause you any harm.

We advise that you check LAWA and do not swim within 72 hours of heavy rainfall as the flow is often faster than usual and there can be high levels of faecal contamination which could make swimmers unwell. Once you’re back at your local swim spot it is also important to remember that things may have changed beneath the surface since you last swam there.

New Zealand rivers and beaches can be unpredictable and deceptively powerful, so don’t enter the water alone, actively supervise children, and if you aren’t a confident swimmer stay out. We also recommend checking the water is clear and there’s no large debris around. Finally, don’t swim close to cliff faces and in an emergency call 111.

For more information on swimspots, cyanobacteria and E. coli head to lawa.org.nz.

Wrapping up the year

2022 has been another year of change and challenges, as we look to 2023 there are some significant bridges yet to cross.

We hope you have found this newsletter useful. More information, including documents relating to the National Policy Statement and National Environmental Standards for Fresh Water, and Frequently Asked Questions, can be found on our website and dedicated freshwater site.