Tasman council takes action over nitrates at Te Waikoropupū Springs

Sunday, 17 April 2022

Rising levels of nitrate detected at Te Waikoropupū Springs in Golden Bay has spurred Tasman District Council into action.

Councillors at a meeting of the strategy and policy committee on Thursday approved the development of an action plan.

One aim of the plan is to improve the council’s knowledge of how the hydrogeological system functions including the Tākaka River, Arthur Marble Aquifer and the springs themselves. Another aim is to identify what may be causing the trend of increasing nitrate levels and what actions may be required to tackle the issue if the trend continues.

Te Waikoropupū Springs contain some of the clearest water ever measured. To Māori, the springs are sacred. Ngāti Tama has the role of kaitiaki, or guardian, over the land and the springs.

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Ngāti Tama Ki Te Waipounamu Trust was a joint applicant in June 2017 with long-time resident Andrew Yuill​ for a Water Conservation Order to protect the springs, the aquifer that feeds them and associated water bodies. That application has been described as “a close weaving of mātauranga Māori [Māori knowledge], Pākehā science and profound environmental values, which cross cultures”.

A Special Tribunal in March 2020 released its recommendations to Environment Minister David Parker. It recommended the application for the Water Conservation Order be granted.

Ten parties lodged appeals and an Environment Court hearing is scheduled for May.

Yuill, who has been collecting water samples from the springs for community conservation group Friends of Golden Bay since February 2016, has long been calling for action, saying there was no room for doubt the trend was upwards for nitrate.

When told after the committee meeting about the councillors’ decision, Yuill said he was pleased to hear about the action plan.

“Even though it’s taken until a month before the Environment Court hearing, finally TDC is saying they would like to do something about it – after six years.”

Friends of Golden Bay had spent about $30,000 on analysis of the water samples its volunteers had collected, paid by funds donated by the community, Yuill said.

Those results were updated regularly and available publicly on the Friends of Golden Bay website.

The organisation had also sent a ZIP file of almost all of its results to the council, Yuill said.

Those results reveal a trend of increasing nitrate levels in Main Spring and Fish Spring since testing started in February 2016.

Earlier, at the committee meeting, council environmental policy manager Barry Johnson told councillors the Friends of Golden Bay data “forms part of the data set for water quality” and contributed to what would be presented to the Environment Court.

“A lot of the debate around the WCO [Water Conservation Order] at Te Waikoropupū does relate to nitrates, so we're going to get a lot of information out of the Environment Court case,” Johnson said.

Councillor Christeen​ Mackenzie​ said she wanted to make sure the voluntary work of Friends of Golden Bay was “properly acknowledged”.

Golden Bay ward councillor Celia Butler said Friends of Golden Bay had done a lot of scientifically sound, community-led monitoring, funded by donations.

Fellow Golden Bay ward councillor Chris Hill said the development of an action plan was “the appropriate thing to do”.

“It’s quite a complex area.”

Hill also said she wanted to echo the support for Friends of Golden Bay.

“That's a lot of money that's been spent on the [monitoring] they've been doing,” she said. “That's a significant contribution that they're making to this matter.”

Councillor Dana Wensley said the role the voluntary group had played was interesting.

“I imagine it's been quite frustrating for them actually,” Wensley said. “Hopefully, this process will lead to some lessons maybe at council about how we can work with community groups so that we don't get to this stage in the future of it being a mediation at the Environment Court.”

Johnson said Friends of Golden Bay had “certainly provided a significant amount of water quality data”.

“It's helpful and it's useful, and yes, we'll have to look at it in the future because the National Policy Statement is going to require significantly more monitoring, which is going to come at significant cost to the ratepayers as well.”