Environmentalists silence deafening on dirty cities

Federated Farmers believes the hypocrisy of environmental lobbyists has been revealed by their silence on urban pollution.

“Yesterday, farmers learned that raw sewerage and heavy metals are being pumped into Wellington Harbour. But environmentalists like ‘hook and bullet’ have only vented their fury today, not on dirty cities as you would expect, but on the tired dirty dairying lie,” says Lachlan McKenzie, Federated Farmers Dairy Chairman.

“Unlike councils who habitually pollute, dairy farms are regularly inspected and these results are publicly available. If farmers transgress they are rightfully prosecuted, which is a lot more than can be said about the environmental performance of councils.

“Yet, the silence of the green movement and environmentalists is deafening when it comes to urban impacts on the environment. Are they missing in action because they are scared of offending their urban supporters?

“Wouldn’t it be nice to see a ‘clean gutters accord’ in urban New Zealand?

“Yet Wellington City isn’t alone. If you search Google with the words “sewerage overflow” on a town of your choosing, it throws up some horrifying results.

“Whether it’s Whangarei District Council blaming its infrastructure, power outages in Auckland or human error, there’s a rank double standard when it comes to our towns and cities.

“Isn’t it amazing that when Far North District Council fixed up town sewerage, inspected septic tanks and worked with the Government to ensure boaties don’t flush and forget, the Waikare oyster farm was able to recommence oyster exports.

“It seems much easier to blame farmers rather than look that bit closer in the mirror.

“Farmers can’t use the excuses councils do. Councils seemingly get away with sewerage overflows on the weird logic that it’s okay if it’s human sewerage and all you need in mitigation is a few signs warning people not to swim or collect shellfish.

“The green lobby allows councils to get away with it by not scrutinising their urban environmental performance.

“It’s a shame dairy farming’s most vocal critics suffer from selective hearing when it comes to the great strides farmers have made over recent years. No industry is perfect but at least people can trust the fact that dairy farmers are regularly audited.

“Look at what we farmers are doing. Over the past few decades we’ve ended direct discharge to water and transitioned initially to single pond systems, then double ponds and we are using now on-land disposal to recycle effluent as liquid fertiliser. The latest technology being developed is GPS linked warning systems for spray irrigators with an industry standard under development.

“Farmers have as much stake in the environment as anybody else. We’d like to think that the water in our harbours and beaches is subject to the same scrutiny as we farmers are,” Mr McKenzie concluded.