Minister calls in Mackenzie Basin dairy discharge consents

27/01/10

Environment Minister Nick Smith today called in three large dairy effluent discharge consents in the Mackenzie Basin and established a board of inquiry to decide on the applications.

A media release from the  Minister's offices says he has called in these discharge consents "as they are nationally significant due to their scale, the fragile and iconic nature of the Mackenzie Basin environment, the importance of freshwater quality to the Government and the high level of public interest,” Smith said.

“The effluent from these intensive farms is equivalent to a city of 250,000 people and raises quite legitimate questions over the long-term impacts on the water quality in the Mackenzie Basin.

The consent applications from Southdown Holdings Ltd, Williamson Holdings Ltd, and Five Rivers Ltd involve nearly 18,000 cows being housed eight months of the year on farms totalling a land area of 8555 hectares, holding ponds totalling 77 million litres and discharges of 1,743,000 litres of effluent per day.

“This call-in decision has been complicated by the fact that it has had to be considered without the recent amendments to the Resource Management Act. The animal welfare issues fall outside the jurisdiction of the RMA and the associated water take consents cannot be called in as they date back to 2004.

“The Board of Inquiry I have appointed to decide these consents will be chaired by Environment Court Judge Jane Borthwick and includes members Michael Bowden (water engineer), Dr Jim Cooke (scientist), Edward Ellison (Ngai Tahu) and Professor David Hamilton (lake ecologist, Waikato University). I have deliberately chosen board members with first-class expertise on water quality issues and three who are also serving as commissioners on related water take consents to ensure appropriate continuity of the decision making process.

“This call-in decision reflects the Government’s policy of providing stronger national leadership on resource management and water quality issues. This process will enable the most robust decision possible for these contentious consents.”