Timaru dairy effluent compliance improves in latest season
Seventy-seven per cent of dairy farms in the Orari-Opihi-Pareora zone achieved full compliance with dairy shed effluent consent conditions in the latest season. Dairy shed effluent must be managed in accordance with resource consent conditions or permitted activity rules.
The results are recorded in Environment Canterbury’s Dairy Report for the 2011-12 season, which is now available on Environment Canterbury’s website.
The compliance result for the Orari-Opihi-Pareora monitoring zone at 77 per cent is above the Canterbury average of 70%.
In terms of significant non-compliance, the Orari-Opihi-Pareora zone was at 9.9%, against 8.6% for the whole of Canterbury. Thirteen per cent of farms in the Orari-Opihi-Pareora zone recorded minor non-compliance.
There are 132 farms – or 13.5% of the regional total – with resource consents or permitted activities for dairying in the Orari-Opihi-Pareora zone.
Environment Canterbury Director Resource Management Kim Drummond said dairy effluent consent compliance is monitored because it has the potential to affect the freshwater quality in streams, rivers and lakes if not properly managed.
“It is very encouraging that our monitoring has shown a region-wide steady improvement in overall compliance rates from season to season.
“In most cases where significant non-compliance has been found this has led to improvements being made on effluent disposal systems and in the management of ponding. We recognise dairy farmers are actively working on storage options to ensure full compliance with conditions.
“The improvement in compliance reflects the work done by Environment Canterbury in collaboration with industry partners and other stakeholders,” said Kim Drummond.
All inspections were carried out by Environment Canterbury Resource Management Officers without prior warning. Inspections included, but were not limited to, checks on ponding, storage systems, pond sealing and buffer distance.
Following each inspection a compliance monitoring report was produced and sent to the relative consent holder.
The Dairy Report also shows there were seven per cent more dairy farms in the Canterbury region during the 2011-12 season than the previous year.
Additional means to improve water quality
Environment Canterbury is also strongly encouraging all farmers to follow good practice and requires stock to be excluded from natural waterways.
Nutrient management is also important for farmers and is a particular focus in Environment Canterbury’s proposed Land & Water Regional Plan.
Under the proposed Plan all farmers will be expected to achieve industry good practice for nutrient management based on nitrogen loss targets.
The proposed Land & Water Regional Plan – which was notified in August – requires farmers to begin recording nutrient loses. It is proposed that any changes in land use resulting in either an increase in the volume of water for irrigation, or an increase of more than 10% in nitrogen losses, will need a resource consent application.
Additional rules in the Plan will also come in to force in July 2017.
Dairy effluent compliance facts
Environment Canterbury compliance officers visited each of the region’s 977 dairy farms at least once between July 2011 and May 2012.
In 2008 Environment Canterbury initiated a meeting with industry partners, Fish & Game and Forest & Bird, to discuss ways to improve levels of dairy effluent compliance. A combined industry and Environment Canterbury group (the Canterbury Dairy Effluent Group) has been working collaboratively since then to improve the rate of dairy effluent compliance. The yearly compliance monitoring results provide one means on assessing the effectiveness of the group’s approach.
The industry partners are dairy companies Fonterra and Synlait, industry groups DairyNZ and Federated Farmers, as well as the South Island Dairying Development Centre and AgITO.
For information on dairy effluent compliance for other Canterbury Water Zones, please see the full report or visit Canterbury Water.