$700m 'long-term' waterways package could restore swimming at Lake Ellesmere
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Swimming in Canterbury's Lake Ellesmere could be the end product of newly introduced reforms and rules to help clean up New Zealand's waterways.
But, it won't happen overnight.
Environment Minister David Parker confirmed on Thursday a package to improve New Zealand's waterways.
It included higher health standards for swimming spots and more control on 'higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots”.
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The primary sector will get $700 million of support from the Government to implement the cleaning initiatives.
Dr Scott Larned, chief scientist of freshwater and estuaries at NIWA, said the 'ambitious' package had some 'great potential environmental benefits'.
Larned described Lake Ellesmere — Canterbury's largest lake, also known as Te Waihora — as 'seriously degraded' due to non-sustainable land management practices.
'So the announcement [on Thursday] is the beginning of improving Lake Ellesmere and it's the beginning of improving other degraded freshwater ecosystems,' Larned said.
He said the end goal could 'absolutely' be swimming in the lake.
'There's historical evidence that Lake Ellesmere was very clear and had a great forest of native submerged plants.'
Larned wanted to see degraded lakes, such as Lake Ellesmere, 'back to healthy environmental conditions with good recreational water quality for people'.
Land, Air, Water Aotearoa, which measures water quality, has given Lake Ellesmere the lowest rating since measuring began in 2004.
The time needed for the changes to show — and for swimming in Lake Ellesmere to become a reality — would be significant.
Larned said the Canterbury Plains was 'a great example' of where intergenerational change — which could take 80 to 100 years — was needed.
The Government announcement said the aim of the package was to 'make a significant improvement in five years and return [waterways] to health in a generation'.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) chief scientist Tim Davie said the announcement was 'a long-term package'.
He said it confirmed the direction the regional council had taken.
Davie said he believed a lot of the rules and the ways of working signalled in the package were already advised in Canterbury, even if they had not yet been implemented.
In 2009, ECan adopted the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, which laid out a need to address the region's 'under pressure' water resources.
That plan spoke about the need for 'riparian planting' — an initiative included in Thursday's package.
Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Cameron Henderson said the package 'reads very similar' to the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan, which sets out how resources are managed in the region.
He described the overall package as 'pragmatic and achievable'.
Greenpeace sustainable agriculture campaigner Gen Toop said the package was a step in the right direction, but it did not go far enough.
She thought the newly announced cap for synthetic nitrogen-fertiliser — set at 190kg N/ha/year — was 'way above what we think will actually do meaningful change in the current state of our rivers'.
Nitrate levels in Canterbury water have been of concern in the past.
Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Dr Alistair Humphrey last year warned the city's drinking water could be undrinkable in 100 years because of nitrate levels.
Later in the year, Environment Canterbury was accused of 'environmental vandalism' by failing to protect drinking water supplies from nitrate pollution.