Plan changes welcomed

Farmers affected by changes to consent rules in Manawatu¯ hope a long-term fix is in the pipeline, but are worried about calls for the Environment Court to get involved from the start.

Horizons Regional Council is working on changing its environmental management rule book, known as the One Plan.

It took 10 years to put the plan together and it has been subject to legal challenges since, with the Environment Court at one stage telling Horizons it was incorrectly issuing consents.

While mostly workable, the plan gets into trouble when dealing with nitrate leaching from farms.

A recent update to modelling software Overseer made it almost impossible for farms in parts of the region covered by Horizons, particularly dairy farms in Tararua and horticulturalists in Horowhenua, to get land-use consents.

Horizons estimates 118 dairy farms and 60 commercial vegetable growers are operating without a land-use consent and no way to get one.

The proposed changes would give those farmers the ability to apply for a discretionary consent.

They would have to prove they were improving markedly in other areas if they could not reach nitrate targets.

Federated Farmers Tararua copresident Neil Filer, who farms dairy near Dannevirke, said he and other farmers were happy to see Horizons coming up with a solution.

Taking more than 10 years to do so was not acceptable, so there was hope the matter would be sorted for good with the plan change.

‘‘We’re quietly confident we’re going to move ahead, which is a good thing.’’

But there was concern environmental groups, such as Fish and Game and Environmental Defence Society, may get involved once again, he said.

Those groups took Horizons to the Environment Court, which made rulings on how the One Plan should be applied, including requiring the strict enforcement of nitrogen limits.

Both groups recently said they want Minister for the Environment, David Parker, to get involved in the plan change, taking it away from the usual process and putting it straight to a board of inquiry or the Environment Court.

Filer said those groups needed to be pragmatic about improving water quality and keeping farms operating.

‘‘They are not here worrying about our communities, jobs and land values.’’

Water quality targets in the One Plan were high, and it would take time to make them reality, Filer said.