Clean Streams Still Fairly Grubby
March 18th, 2009
Dairy industry progress on keeping effluent out of fresh waterways has stalled, according to the newly published 2007/08 Snapshot of Progress on the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord. Signed in 2003, the Accord envisaged immediate compliance by all dairy farms with resource consent requirements relating to effluent entering waterways. Six years on, only 70% of farms are fully compliant, barely changed from the year before, and significant non-compliance remains stuck at 11% (12% the year before). This level of non-compliance is “unacceptable” and Fonterra is introducing new measures to assist non-compliant farmers, while regional councils will be enforcing their regimes rigorously.
Serious effluent discharge non-compliance is most marked in the Northland, Manawatu, Wellington and Canterbury regions, while the dairy-dominated Waikato region’s record of full compliance with effluent discharge regimes is below 50%, with only Canterbury producing a worse result. Waikato’s problems relate primarily to a 40%+ rate of minor non-compliance. Non-compliance in Taranaki is very low. Effluent discharges are recorded separately in that region, where the regional council runs its own management regime. Some 99% of farms now have a nutrients management budget, although the target of all farms having a nutrient management plan in place by now is far from being met.
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