Source: Federated Farmers
Environment Southland has lost all credibility with Waituna farmers and the wider community over a ruling on when the lagoon can be opened to the sea, Jason Herrick says.
“The independent hearing panel’s consent ruling this week is an absolutely farcical piece of ideological wording,” the Federated Farmers Southland president says.
“Common sense and landowners’ rights have been trampled.”
This week a hearings panel of independent commissioners granted a new 20-year consent for periodic opening of the lagoon, as sought by the Department of Conservation (DOC), local iwi Te Rūnanga o Awarua, and Environment Southland.
It means a channel can now only be cut when lagoon levels are higher than those that have previously triggered openings.
“This puts the surrounding farmland at serious risk of flooding, it saturates the highly erodible stream banks, and it compromises catchment drainage systems,” Herrick says.
“Managing flooding and drainage and preventing soil erosion are core responsibilities of Environment Southland.
“The council should have fought harder for those factors to be considered by the panel – or simply pulled their involvement altogether.
“Waituna farmers are fuming about it and they feel like they’ve been completely ignored.”
Herrick says if Environment Southland fails to get a better outcome under whatever mechanisms are open to them, the council will struggle to get future co-operation from farmers and the community catchment group.
“Waituna farmers and the catchment group have worked hard on environmental improvements to the lagoon.
“Right now, they’ve completely lost trust in Environment Southland, and it’ll take the council a lot of work to earn it back.”
For more than a century, at times of high rainfall and flooding, a channel has been cut in the bank of the lagoon to allow water to escape into the Pacific Ocean.
Consents held by the community-driven Lake Waituna Control Association since 1969 have in recent years seen openings made when the lagoon reached 2.2m in depth.
But those existing permits expired in early 2022 and landowners had to abandon a bid to have them renewed after legal bills topped $140,000.
This week, the hearings panel granted a DOC/iwi/Environment Southland alternative application.
For the first 10 years, an opening can be cut when the lagoon reaches up 2.3m in depth in winter months, and 2.4 in summer months. The trigger level increases progressively until from years 15-20 it’s 2.5m. But it’s at the discretion of DOC and fellow consent holders whether an opening is made, even at those trigger points.
Local farmer and Lake Waituna Control Association member Maarten Van Rossum says there will be significant flooding of farmland when the lagoon depth passes 2.4m depth.
Herrick says Environment Southland chair Nicol Horrell’s stance on the consent ruling seems to be totally at odds with that of the council’s staff and with wording on the council website welcoming the hearing panel’s decision.
Horrell says he’s “bitterly disappointed” with the outcome.
Council staff several times tried to get DOC and Te Rūnanga o Awarua to adopt a more flexible stance, he says.
“But they dug in and weren’t prepared to concede.
“Natural justice would have said if you’re going to make some of those farms un-farmable, the owners either have to be compensated or the farms purchased.
“But I don’t see anyone coming up with $30-$40 million, and anyway, you’d get better bang for buck making strategic purchases of land further up the catchment where we’re losing the nitrogen.”
Horrell says he’s seen no scientific evidence that shows the lagoon and internationally significant Ramsar wetlands surrounding it is any better off at a 2.5m lagoon depth versus 2.3m.
At the very least, he wants a review of scientific evidence of any impacts – good or bad – after 10 years.
With the old consent expired, Horrell says it’s positive there’s now a consent over a long period that allows lagoon openings – the argument is over at what depth.
Submitters and applicants can appeal the consent, and Horrell says Environment Southland staff are seeking legal advice on how they can achieve changes.
There is also a community meeting next week at which farmers and local residents will discuss next steps, Herrick says.
Nature may provide an earlier test of the new consent – and DOC’s attitude.
The lagoon is already very high, and Herrick says he’s seen a prediction that water levels could reach 2.8m next week unless an opening is cut.
