He said the council has been working towards improving water quality for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a massive effort not only just now but since the early 2000s, since those predictions were done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pauling said while intensive farming is considered a key driver, urban storm and wastewater schemes could also contribute.<\/p>\n
He also acknowledged there was a lag time of three to 30 years, depending on the substrate and groundwater system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nutrients that are already in the system, in the groundwater, that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing popping up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pauling said more recent efforts have been complicated by the current Government ceasing all resource management plans while it develops a new freshwater national direction.<\/p>\n
Environment Canterbury councillor Vicky Southworth wants the regional council to take a leadership role over groundwater pollution of water supplies. Photo \/ RNZ, Nate McKinnon<\/p>\n
He felt it had left their \u201chands tied\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what it has led to is more conversations in the community about what we\u2019re calling non-statutory action.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what [are] actions and interventions that we can take that don\u2019t require plans and rules? I.e. working directly with farmers and industry and mana whenua, and our district and regional councils to get on the same page and say, within these catchments, we know we still have high nitrate issues in our groundwater, what are the things we can do to solve that, and confront that?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a whole range of options.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said these range from the \u201cextreme\u201d end of the spectrum, such as stopping farming, to reducing stock and fertiliser inputs, planting nitrate catch crops, implementing herd homes, or establishing wetlands and recharging aquifers.<\/p>\n
Pauling said industry, mana whenua and Government all had a part to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccessive governments have really changed the goalposts a number of times in relation to freshwater issues, which hasn\u2019t really helped councils, and we\u2019re in the middle of them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
ECan chairman Craig Pauling says the council has been working towards improving water quality for many years. Photo \/ RNZ, Nate McKinnon<\/p>\n
The motion to declare a \u201cnitrate emergency\u201d has drawn criticism from Government ministers.<\/p>\n
Resource Management Act (RMA) Reform Minister Chris Bishop said it had stopped councils from progressing \u201cunnecessary\u201d plans and regional policy statement reviews \u2013 including freshwater plans \u2013 while it worked through significant reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intent of the plan stop is to save councils and ratepayers time and money in advance of the new planning system coming into force.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said public consultation had recently finished on options to replace the freshwater national direction, which included proposals to require councils to map drinking water sources.<\/p>\n
Mapping of nitrate-nitrogen samples by concentration shows the Ashburton region had the highest nitrate concentrations, similar to previous years’ surveys. Photo \/ Environment Canterbury<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the current RMA had a pathway for regional councils to apply to the responsible minister to notify and progress their freshwater plan.<\/p>\n
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay labelled voting on a motion on the council\u2019s last sitting day before breaking for the election a \u201cgimmick or a political stunt\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said it did a \u201cdisservice to an important issue the Government is focused on getting right\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe previous regulations weren\u2019t working for anyone across the country, especially in Canterbury. <\/p>\n
\u201cComplaints from water users had been growing, and in many cases, councils around the country were just as frustrated as farmers and other businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says ECan voting on a motion on the council\u2019s last sitting day before the election was a \u201cgimmick or a political stunt\u201d. Photo \/ RNZ, Reece Baker<\/p>\n
McClay expected the new national direction for freshwater management and improved farm plan regulations would be completed by early next year.<\/p>\n
He said this would give councils the tools \u201cto improve water quality without unnecessarily harming businesses and the local economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Pauling said notices of motion were a way for councillors to put a matter on the agenda for discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny councillor has the right to bring a notice of motion to council. <\/p>\n
\u201cCouncil then debates it and may or may not choose to support it, following the debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge it\u2019s the final council meeting of the term, however, nitrate in our ground and drinking water is an ongoing issue that we have been working on alongside the region\u2019s local and district councils, mana whenua and the community for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t solve this by fighting over whose fault it is, we will solve it by coming together to find a way through. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe all owe that to our communities and our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenpeace is also calling on ECan to do more, staging a rally outside its office buildings during Wednesday\u2019s council meeting.<\/p>\n
Waimakariri resident Kate Gillard told the crowd the council was allowing for a huge expansion of dairy farming.<\/p>\n
She said it was infuriating the regional council said private drinking wells were not its concern, while at the same time controlling land use decisions such as increased dairy farms.<\/p>\n
Freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe said nitrate contamination impacted the environment and human health.<\/p>\n
Appelbe said the cost of nitrate contamination was ultimately borne by the community and ECan, as the regulator was responsible for fixing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve failed in their duty to protect the lakes and water, and people\u2019s drinking water.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnvironment Canterbury has approved more than 15,000 dairy cattle to be added to the dairy herd in the Canterbury Plains, and that is just going to make the problem worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main source of nitrate contamination is intensive dairying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pauling said he would be speaking to attendees.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The survey found E. coli was detected in almost 49 (14%) of these wells, especially in the shallowest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[534,18205,27652,15974,25689,111,43,139,27653,69,4987,13316,801,25690,376],"class_list":["post-27860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-amid","tag-considers","tag-ecan","tag-emergency","tag-gianina","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nitrate","tag-nz","tag-pollution","tag-protests","tag-rising","tag-schwanecke","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}