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4 Current Framework

The following section outlines the current policy framework for managing the impacts of diffuse discharges on water quality, this enables comparison with the essential features outlined in section 3, allowing gaps to be identified in section 5.

4.1 Roles and relationships

4.1.1 Central and local government roles

The RMA devolves primary responsibility for managing water quality issues to regional councils. This is in terms of consents and rules for discharges to water and land, and rules for land use activities that may affect water quality. While land use issues are primarily the responsibility of territorial authorities through their district plans, regional councils can set policy for integrated management of resources through their regional policy statements and can control land use through regional plans to achieve water quality objectives.

Central government can articulate its interest in water quality issues and set water quality standards through the use of national policy statements and environmental standards. A regional plan or district plan must not be inconsistent with a national or regional policy statement.

4.1.2 Partnerships

Partnerships between central government, regional councils, territorial authorities, Māori, industry and landowners to manage water quality outcomes currently occur only to a limited extent. Examples where partnerships have occurred include:

  • Environment Waikato is working closely with central government agencies, the Taupo District Council and the Tuwharetoa Trust Board to address declining water quality in Lake Taupo (refer Appendix 3 - Case Study on Lake Taupo).
  • Regional councils work with landowners, industry and care groups to improve farming practices (eg, retiring margins of rivers and lakes from livestock and cropping; soil conservation; planting activities to restore wetlands and plant river and lake margins).
  • Fonterra, regional councils and central government agencies collaboratively work on Market Focused and the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord to manage the impacts of rural land use on water quality by encouraging dairy farmers to undertake best practice activities on their farms.

4.1.3 Restricted opportunity for Māori engagement and participation

Māori have particular interests in fresh water in New Zealand, arising out of their status as indigenous people and the Treaty of Waitangi. Māori also have interests as owners of agricultural land and may be impacted by constraints on land use. Māori interests are recognised to some degree in the RMA and in the SDPoA. Yet Māori interests and values are not generally reflected in water quality management and decisions. However, councils can decide to involve Māori and empower them to become more active participants in water quality decision making.

The mixing of waters and waste discharges are considered to degrade the mauri (life force) of the waters, and may also offend the mana (status) of different iwi or hapu who hold traditional rights and responsibilities with respect to the different waterways. This leads to Māori being unable to practice their customs and traditions associated with those water bodies.

The management of freshwater (including ongoing Māori involvement in management) is frequently an issue in Treaty settlement negotiations. Many Māori consider that, in practice, their opportunities to engage and participate in management and decision making on water are restricted, due to both a lack of capacity and resources within local government and Māori, as well as limitations in the legislative framework.

The issue of Māori participation and engagement in resource management planning and decision making has also been raised through the current Resource Management Act review. Work undertaken in the Water Programme of Action will need aligning with the outcomes of the Resource Management Act review.

4.2 Strategic direction

4.2.1 Water quality management and planning is evolving

Over the last 15 years, New Zealand has made significant progress in reducing direct (point source) discharges of human and agricultural sewage and industrial waste into waterways. These discharges were relatively easy to identify and address, leading to significant and almost immediate improvements in water quality in some areas. To some degree, direct discharges have been managed by converting them to diffuse discharges, for example land disposal of waste from urban areas and dairy sheds.

With the reduction in direct discharges, there is evidence that diffuse sources of contaminants (eg, nitrogen and micro-organisms like campylobacter) from intensive agricultural land use are now the key contributors to rural water quality problems (particularly in lowland rivers). Therefore, many water managers are recognising the need to focus more on diffuse discharges, as part of the evolution of water management and planning in New Zealand.

Regional councils are beginning to take action on water quality management but in some areas it is in the early stages of development. Some examples of where progress is being made include:

  • Water quality in Lake Taupo (see case study in Appendix 3).
  • Environment Bay of Plenty introducing a rule into its regional plan to help address poor water quality in Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti.
  • Market Focused and the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord (as noted in section 4.1.2).
  • Lake Alexandrina (see case study in Appendix 4).

4.2.2 Changing land use with more intensive and diversified activities

Agricultural land use covers over half of New Zealand, with agriculture being the main economic activity in most regions and provincial cities in the country. Economically, the total value of agricultural exports in 2003 was $14.4 billion (equal to 51% of total mercantile exports), and the sector employs 9.6% of New Zealand's total workforce. The value of agriculture to the economy is well understood and accepted within New Zealand.

The Government has economic growth objectives and policies for the New Zealand economy (eg, the Growth and Innovation Framework). As agriculture contributes around half of New Zealand's export earnings, it will inevitably be a major sector in achieving any growth objectives.

As a consequence, ongoing pressure for the intensification of, and changing, rural land use is likely.

Agricultural land use in New Zealand continually changes and adapts to changing economic circumstances, demands for products, and environmental and social circumstances. Currently some farmers are trying to increase production from their land to achieve better economic returns, higher incomes for their families, or in order to service debt due to high land prices. One way to increase returns is to intensify or diversify their activities on the land. In the case of pastoral farming this could mean increasing pasture growth (by adding more fertiliser) and bringing more feed onto the property (eg, silage) to enable higher stocking rates. In some cases this could enable a change in the type of farming from a more extensive activity (eg, sheep and cattle farming) to a more intensive activity (eg, dairying). More intensive land use can lead to more pollutants entering water bodies (eg, nitrogen or phosphorus from fertilisers; nitrogen/ammonia from animal urine or silage; micro-organisms from animal faeces; sediment from stock pugging).

4.2.3 Planning and decision making for sustainable development outcomes

Section 3.0 of this paper outlined the need for a sustainable development policy framework to manage water quality in a manner that identifies and optimises outcomes across economic, environmental, cultural and social values, while considering the needs of national, regional and local communities, and of current and future generations. To date, however, community sustainable development outcomes for water quality have only been identified to a limited extent at both the national and regional levels.

To date central government has not specified the outcomes it seeks for the management of freshwater or stated what the national interest is in water. [The possible exception to this being water bodies protected by water conservation orders, although they are limited in terms of specifying central government outcomes, as they are not initiated by central government.] It has not, for example, made use of the national policy statement or environmental standard mechanisms provided under the RMA to define desired water quality outcomes or processes.

Most regional councils have undertaken some strategic planning for water quality outcomes through their planning processes under the RMA, but this is mainly in the area of non-regulatory actions (eg, education, establishing care groups). Only a few councils are proposing to put in place regulatory controls and rules on the effects of diffuse discharges on water quality in their regional plans.

The current Resource Management Act review is examining improving the national policy statement process and whether to allow the Government to require regional councils to develop plans addressing specific issues. The water programme of action work will need aligning with the outcomes of the Resource Management Act review.

Taking a sustainable development approach to address water quality problems means considering a wide range of factors in decision making. Decision makers are faced with the difficulty of integrating consideration of:

  • the assimilative capacity of the water body to cope with ongoing impacts of agriculture (and other factors) on water quality
  • water quality impacts on the different values of water, including
    • the economic benefits generated (eg, from irrigation for agriculture; energy generation, industrial and aquaculture production; and tourism activity)
    • the social benefits (eg, employment generation; water-based recreation opportunities; human and stock drinking water; providing food)
    • the value of natural ecosystems and providing habitat for New Zealand's native plants and animals
    • Māori cultural values, including Māori beliefs that:
      • water symbolises the spiritual link between the past and the present and is a taonga (treasure) left by the ancestors for the life sustaining use of their descendants, who must guard these taonga for future generations
      • water is an essential ingredient of life, vital to the physical and spiritual survival of all things dependent on the maintenance of the mauri, wairua (spirit), mana and tapu (sacred nature) of every water body
      • a water body with an intact mauri can sustain healthy ecosystems, support a range of cultural uses, and reinforce the cultural identity of the people [Ministry for the Environment (2001): Managing Waterways on Farms, Ministry for the Environment, Wellington.]
      • the mauri can be polluted and damaged by actions that are not part of the natural realm, such as removal of native riparian vegetation, contamination or drainage. [Ibid.] This threatens the ability of the water body to nurture life
      • these cultural values, such as the maintenance of the life-giving capacity of water, interact and intersect with other values in water - for example, the value of water to Māori and others as a factor in economic development and employment.
  • how degraded water quality impacts on all four values (eg, making water unsuitable for human and animal consumption, contact recreation, and aquatic habitat; detracting from New Zealand's "Clean Green" image which could have implications for international trade and tourism; and impacts on Māori cultural values)
  • the value to the community of land use activities which are impacting on water quality
  • where there may be opportunity for further development and intensification of agricultural activity versus where development has already led to impacts greater than the assimilative capacity of a water body can cope with and its regenerative capacity.

4.3 Consultation

The Resource Management Act provides processes for community consultation when setting community outcomes at the national, regional or local level. The Local Government Act 2002 also provides processes for community consultation to set community outcomes in long term council community plans and requirements for consultation with Māori. Robust consultation, however, can be quite time-consuming for all parties involved, especially for groups where the same individuals are involved in multiple consultative processes.

4.4 Information, research and technology

4.4.1 Problems with identifying and measuring diffuse discharges

There can often be time lags of up to 50 or 60 years before the effects of past land use intensification show up on the ground. This time delay makes addressing degraded water quality difficult, as it has implications for intergenerational equity, acceptance of immediate costs for long term gain, and research. [Reversing degradation of water quality and changing land use involves cost, as the Lake Taupo project illustrates. In order for agencies, land users, ratepayers and taxpayers to accept increased costs to protect water quality, they need to understand how and why it is happening.] The time delay may be a factor in the limited public appreciation and awareness of the adverse impacts of rural land use.

The nature of diffuse discharges makes it difficult to measure and collect data. Measurement is expensive and there are often large margins of error with measurement techniques.

Without accurate data water managers cannot easily identify contaminant sources or make successful prosecutions for breaches of legislation or planning rules.

4.4.2 Science and information requirements

In cases such as Lake Taupo, regional council action to address diffuse discharges requires the support of scientific information. Important issues are the variable quality of scientific information across catchments, the accessibility of information to decision makers, the lack of uptake of the outcomes of research, the acceptance of traditional Māori knowledge in decision making and the need to target research resources to develop innovative solutions to get better water quality management.

Participants at the focus group sessions [Property Rights in Water Quality: A Review of Stakeholders' Understanding and Behaviour, Harris Consulting, March 2004.] on landowners' perceptions stated they believed any constraint on their land use had to be scientifically proven by decision makers. Anecdotally, this view reflects the opinion generally held by landowners. Related issues are the degree of certainty that can be expected to be provided by scientific analysis.

Dissemination and uptake of research has not been matched by the level of funding and effort invested.

4.5 Effective tools (legislation, policy tools, economic instruments)

4.5.1 Legislation

Regulation of diffuse discharges under the RMA

Under section 15 of the RMA, all discharges of contaminants into water, or discharges of contaminants onto land that may enter water, must be expressly authorised in a regional plan, resource consent or regulations.

Councils are not able to authorise any discharges if they are likely to have certain effects, including producing floatable or suspended materials, causing conspicuous changes in colour or visual clarity, objectionable odours or significant adverse effects on aquatic life (sections 70 and 107).

Application of RMA to diffuse agricultural discharges

Many councils are still developing approaches to manage diffuse discharges to land. For example diffuse discharges may be managed under discharge permits or land use consents. Landowners are not able to rely on the existing use rights provisions of the RMA in respect of such discharges.

Regional councils that have examined diffuse discharges have mainly focused on non-regulatory means, with emphasis on encouraging better practice by enhancing landowner awareness of impacts of land use on water quality. Gains in on-farm practice through this approach can be lost when changes in the economic climate encourage intensification to increase profit; or a reduction in effort and investment in environmental outcomes.

There are also issues with regulation of land use and water quality relating to perceived impingement on landowners' property rights. Addressing these issues can be politically contentious leading to a reluctance to tackle them.

4.5.2 Policy and regulatory tools

As well as using education and information programmes to address diffuse discharges from rural land use, councils have also collaborated with central government and industry groups in negotiating voluntary agreements, such as the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. While valuable, these initiatives are unlikely to fully address water quality issues where there are high water quality risks or a significant reduction in discharges is required. Education and information programmes are most effective where they lead to better dissemination of "win-win" practices, but are likely to be less effective when changes impose costs on land users.

Regional councils have made limited use of the regulatory tools available under the RMA to address water quality (eg, the power to make rules in plans). When used these tools have specifically prescribed land use and intensity and/or farming and management practices (eg, requiring riparian fencing, particular nutrient management arrangements). The nature of diffuse discharges, combined with current legislation, make it difficult for councils to directly regulate discharge levels and at the same time allow flexibility for land users as to how they reduce discharges to comply with limits. These factors, combined with legislative restrictions on the transferability of discharge permits, [This is the subject of discussion under the Resource Management Act review.] also impede regional councils using "cap and trade" arrangements to manage discharges, such as the nitrogen trading arrangement which is currently being explored by Environment Waikato for Lake Taupo. The limitations of the tools available to regional councils are likely to increase the costs of securing desired water quality objectives.

4.6 Community awareness

There is a need to increase public understanding of the impacts of land use on water quality and the desirability of improving degraded water quality as much as possible at the source of contaminants.

The current lack of public awareness of the link between land use and water quality problems makes it difficult for those who have to make the 'hard' political decisions required to effectively address water quality issues through controls on land use. However, water quality problems in some lakes are becoming more significant and are receiving increasing media attention, particularly those lakes which are considered to be major New Zealand icons (ie, Lake Taupo).

4.7 Capacity

There is a shortage of personnel both in central and local government with the technical skills and practical experience needed for managing land use effects on water quality. This may also be an issue for Māori and stakeholders. This shortage of capacity is likely to increase as more emphasis is placed on addressing the issues raised, and implementing new approaches and tools.

Summary of current framework issues

  • Ongoing pressure for the intensification of and changing rural land use is likely.
  • There are problems with identifying and measuring diffuse discharges and difficulties due to the often long time lags between cause and effect.
  • Management and planning relating to the impacts of diffuse discharges on water quality is evolving.
  • Strategic planning is limited and decision making for sustainable development outcomes is complex and therefore often not addressed well.
  • Difficult decisions need to be made between the benefits of further land use intensification and costs.
  • Key problems are identifying complementarities between values and ways to optimise the benefits across all values; identifying innovative solutions to meet this challenge; and making explicit and transparent decisions when trade-offs need to be made.
  • Under current legislation, discharges of contaminants into water must be authorised in a regional plan, consent or regulation, but there appears to be uncertainty over interpretation relating to diffuse discharges.
  • There can be a reluctance to face the associated politically contentious issues, particularly those which may impinge on rural sector perceived property rights.
  • Uninformed expectations of the level of scientific information needed in decision making and reluctance to accept traditional Māori knowledge.
  • Regional councils have an incomplete tool kit to manage water quality impacts at lowest cost.
  • Insufficient public awareness of the links between land use and water quality problems.
  • Restricted opportunity for Māori participation.
  • A need to continue improving the technical skills and practical experience of those involved in managing land use effects on water quality.

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