Dompost lead today says it all – Our River of Shame – reporting the Manawatu tops a new pollution measure of 300 rivers and streams across the Western world. And then on page 3, a re-report of the Health Ministry’s annual survey I’ve previously highlighted, showing one in six Kiwis are drinking substandard or untested water.
Tonight the Dunsandel (Canterbury) community is meeting to discuss the presence of the sometimes fatal e-coli bug in its water supply. I’ll correct this if I am wrong but dairying is the likely cause.
Yet there we were yesterday, under urgency, seeing Parliament rush-pass an ETS which will subsidise and effectively encourage polluters to continue the practices which have already undermined water quality.
It’s not just the Manawatu. An MFE report, using other measures, shows it to be only be our fifth-worst major river for water quality.
Such poor water quality puts at risk our very economic base.
Especially in tough times, European and other farmers and their politicians will be looking for reasons to thwart our exports into their home markets. Dairying and tourism are our two biggest export earners. Each worth nearly $10b a year. Dairying shamelessly uses the clean green image in its marketing, even if the state of the Manawatu and other rivers shows we are a long way short.
There does seem to be some agreement here about getting things right. Federated Farmers president Don Nicholson says in the latest Feds magazine that sustainability is the competitive advantage of New Zealand farmers “and we must put up and stand by standards that go beyond the minimum.”
But try telling farmers to cut nitrate use (equals production) – which lies at the heart of what’s happening in the Manawatu. I don’t want to see New Zealand lose export dollars. Dairying contributes hugely to our economy – and its not the only polluter – but it is the elephant in the room. And we cannot ignore some of the awful results for river and stream quality coming from dairy-dominated land use. Even if we do, the rest of the world will not.
What the bleep are they thinking? Without a decent water supply we are bleeped! Can’t those dairy farmers keep their waste away from our rivers? Why doesn’t someone make them dispose of the waste in a better way?
The Greens have been going on about this for years, is Labour saying all this pollution happened in the last year..?
And the polluting farmers ‘elephant in the room’ has been cr*pping all over the place, while Labour spent the last 9 years selling tickets to the circus…
Regional Councils do regular checks on dairy farmer’s effluent ponds; (see Crafer Farms) so most farmers are aware of the need to watch discharges. Taranaki Regional Council has a policy of making farmers fence waterways away from cattle and do riparian planting – pity more didn’t adopt this policy. They checked out one waterway that was supposedly polluted by dairy farmers, but found out that it was waterfowl droppings that were contributing the most of the pollution. Perhaps Fish and Game should get some of the blame for not allowing an open season on Canadian geese.
“Labour spent the last 9 years selling tickets to the circus…” And a year ago it opened
Comment: Is Labour saying all this pollution has happened in the past year? No, but our ETS was designed to stop it getting worse.
Janice, agree many farmers now fence off streams (Taranaki especially) and do their best with effluent ponds etc but the worst-rated river is still in Taranaki. Admit it could be town sewage but 9th worse river is the Waingongoro..
wow, nearly 1 week away because I was attacked by a “virus” and I’m back yehaa.
why the surprise here .. this river was on telly a few years ago showing pollution from a factory going straight into it .. what a shocker.
I know the HUGE effort and cost our company spends on enviromental processes and this example is disgusting.
Maybe you should ask Nathan Guy about his intensive dairy farm that backs onto the Manawatu river and the crap they pump into it. Maybe also ask him about how his father is on the Regional Council that approves the pumping of the Guy farm crap into the river?
A good labour candidate would have taken him to task on this before now.
Hey j, abba
Separated the letters in case you’re in m, oderation. I wondered where you were, good to see you back! 
Why is there a double standard held by local authorities. Enter into Earth work operations and the consents will not allow any contamination into streams. Silt ponds with mapped catchment areas with effective flaculant devices that are checked weekly. If they fail fines and abatement notices can be issued. Why is it that silt is not allowed to enter waterways yet “other” matter is permitted?
And to many The Clean Green is only a marketing catchphase A very good one. Remember crap in waterways grows green thingys!
@spud “Can’t those dairy farmers keep their waste away from our rivers? Why doesn’t someone make them dispose of the waste in a better way?”
Spud, dairy farmers pay a levy to DairyNZ out of their milk cheque, which helps them with sustainable dairying. Its a kind of self-imposed fart tax. Here’s some of its output.
http://www.dairynz.co.nz/page/pageid/2145836756/Sustainable%20Dairying#AGuidetoManagingFarmDairyEffluent
And here’s one for you to enjoy;
http://sustainablog.org/2008/06/14/in-praise-of-poop-rediscovering-the-wonders-of-cow-manure/
@ Janice – hmmm, but my mate who lives in Taranaki (and is farmer-friendly) says most streams are polluted heavily. And Brendon B has pointed out the rivers.
The accords Fonterra and councils are signing with farmers are too little, too slow. If councils insisted on waterway fencing being done within a year or two, with planting inside 5 years, we might see some progress. And incentivise it with rates rebates proportional to length or cost of fencing done. But don’t waste our time talking sweetly to try persuade farmers to ‘do the right thing’ – it doesn’t beat windfall profits; you have to make them think of our future!
And thanks Despair – the info on Nathan Guy should definitely be chased up!!! Looks like there is method in the ‘madness’ of the Manawatu RC – helping family pollute for profits ;(
I thought the riparian planting was the best part of the Greens’ New Deal…
Makes me feel somewhat ashamed to be a Palmy citizen. I have taken walks alongside the Manawatu River and thought how it might be nice to sit on the banks of the river and dip my toes in, or go sailing down it in a dinghy. After reading this news, I don’t think I’ll bother.