No fanfare for water plan
After a decade of consultation and court battles, Environment Southland has officially adopted a plan to prevent further decline in the region's water quality.
The slope criteria comes into play under the controversial National Environment Standards for Freshwater.
The solution applies to Southland farmers who winter graze on crop paddocks between 10-15 degrees.
ES integrated catchment management general manager Paul Hulse says the council wants to provide regulatory certainty to farmers for their intensive winter grazing next season, making a range of options available to give farmers the opportunity to meet regulatory obligations and achieve good environmental outcomes.
“We’re pleased that we’ve been able to find a solution for farmers who only trigger the slope criteria of the national legislation as it provides regulatory certainty and at a reasonable cost,” he says.
Eligible farmers will need to demonstrate, by outlining good management practices, that adverse effects on the environment are no different to the effects of intensive winter grazing conducted on low slope land.
This decision to introduce a deemed permitted activity provides three regulatory pathways for farmers to undertake their intensive winter grazing activities: i) meet all permitted activity criteria; ii) apply for a deemed permitted activity; or iii) apply for a resource consent.
Hulse says ES will continue to work with the rural sector and is pleased to see continued improvements to winter grazing practice.
“This season we saw widespread examples of good practice, including following adverse weather, and we expect this trend to continue,” he says.
Deemed permitted activity forms will be available online in early October and will be issued for up to 24 months.
The cost of the application is likely to be under $500 if all information is supplied, while an application deposit for a resource consent for winter grazing is $1725.
“While this may be a solution for many farmers, we are still continuing to encourage people to manage their winter grazing by staying within the permitted activity criteria if they can,” says Hulse.
