Official praises ORC effects-based water quality approach

A senior government official has commended the Otago Regional Council's collaborative, effects-based approach to water quality management.

Ministry for the Environment (Mfe) deputy secretary (policy) Guy Beatson, speaking to the ORC' Good Water Good Farming forum in Cromwell this morning, singled out the ORC's development of an effects-based strategy to dealing with non-point discharges into waters and streams as an example of this. The ORC strategy includes the use of on-farm measurement of some water contaminants.

He said there could be major benefits for farming operations if they could more accurately quantify the appropriate amount of fertiliser to apply on paddocks, and restrict runoff.

This would have the twin effects, as articulated in the ORC's new rural water quality strategy, of achieving environmental and economic benefits through increased on-farm productivity and profitability.

The scientific community had a lot to offer, because of the key ongoing role research would play in water management.

That needed to be supported by a community definition of water values and their importance, Mr Beatson said.

Mr Beatson said that as another speaker at the ORC forum, Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper had indicated, major international supermarkets and their consumers would also have a major bearing on our ability to sell agricultural products, since they were increasingly seeking details about how water was used in food production.

Meanwhile, Mr Beatson also touched on the work of the government-appointed Land and Water Forum, which has been charged with developing a new structure for water management in NZ.

LAWF comprises a group of 56 primary industry groups, environmental and recreational NGOs, iwi and other organisations with an interest in fresh water and land management.

LAWF's work and the recommendations it makes to ministers towards the end of August are important because they have the potential to influence the future of water quality issues in regions like Otago, where the ORC is developing an array of tools for farmers and other land users to use to improve water quality.

ORC's Good Water Good Farming forum in Cromwell this morning ORC chairman Cr Stephen Cairns and deputy chairman Cr Stephen Woodhead quizzed Mr Beatson about the likely level of public consultation that would result from LAWF's findings.

Cr Cairns told Mr Beatson: "We are actually focused on water quality. We want to get on and take the lead for our region. We don't want to be dealt to by what could be unnecessary l mitigation measures for our region."

Mr Beatson said he could not go not into detail about the LWF's current thinking, but said it was "highly likely" there would be some form of public consultation on its recommendations.