Lake water quality report released

New Zealand needs to improve its freshwater management to ensure our lakes measure up to our clean, green reputation, Environment Minister Nick Smith said today in releasing the Status and Trends 2010 Report on Lake Water Quality in New Zealand.

"This report concludes that New Zealand lake water quality compares favourably with Europe and North America but there are signs of real concern," Dr Smith said. "It is unacceptable that 32% of our monitored lakes have poor water quality and that more lakes are deteriorating in water quality than are improving.

"Lake water quality is worst in low-land intensively farmed areas such as the Waikato and Manawatu.  The Government is ramping up spending on freshwater clean-up initiatives, from $17 million from 2003-2008 to $94 million from 2009-2014.  It is encouraging the lake showing the greatest improvement in water quality is Lake Rotoiti in the Bay of Plenty, proving the success of the Rotorua Lakes Water Quality initiative."

Sixty-eight lakes had reliable data for the period 2005 to 2009 to enable trends in water quality to be measured.  Nineteen lakes showed deterioration and eight showed improvement.

"The deterioration in lake water quality was worst in Canterbury between 2005 and 2009, making up 15 of the 19 lakes nationwide that went backwards," Dr Smith said.  "This reinforces the Government's decision to intervene in water management in Canterbury, and the need to fast-track water plans and rules to better manage pollution.

"The data in this report is not comprehensive and has some gaps. More information is required on why the greatest deterioration in water quality has occurred in catchments with more native than pastoral land cover. The data is also limited to 112 out of 4000 New Zealand lakes, although I am encouraged that the number of lakes being monitored has trebled since 2000.

"This lake water quality report will contribute to the Government's broader programme of work on improving freshwater management.  I encourage New Zealanders to participate in the Land and Water Forum consultation between now and March on the steps we need to take to improve freshwater quality."

The report is available at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/ser/lake-water-quality-in-nz-2010/lake-water-quality-in-nz-2010.pdf