Questions from community workshops

In October and November 2015, Healthy Rivers: Plan for Change/Wai Ora: He Rautaki Whakapaipai held five community workshops around the Waikato and Waipa river catchments. This page provides answers, as at January 2016, to some of the questions people asked at the workshops. 

Scenario modelling and integrated assessment

What ‘standards’ did the modelling look for?

Each scenario modelled has defined water quality outcomes it is trying to achieve. The scenario dictates the ‘standards’ (the levels of contaminants, and other characteristics of water, such as clarity, required to meet the scenario).

For example, when Scenario 1: Achieving water quality for swimming, taking food and healthy biodiversity  was modelled, one water characteristic the modelling was looking for was E. coli levels suitable for swimming. For E. coli, 540 E. coli/100 mL is the minimum acceptable state for swimming, so the model was trying to achieve this level.

So the ‘standards’ the modelling looks for are numerous, as they vary by scenario, and also by water characteristic and location.

What assumptions were included in the modelling to determine costs?

The  limitations of the modelling are that it:

• does not study how things might change through time but models the final end state of a scenario when all mitigations are implemented and operating to their design efficiency
• projects total costs, and assumes costs lie where they fall (i.e. on sectors)
• uses an ‘average year’ and other average values, and does not try to predict future changes, such as milk prices, or economic equilibrium mechanisms such as a reduction in a type of farming being partially counteracted by price increases
• provides results that can be used down to subcatchment level, but not down to property level. Best available data has been used, and at times this includes farm level data. However, it’s often aggregated and averaged so it can be used over the entire 1.1 million ha of the catchments
• does not take into account any possible future innovation
• does not provide for water quality outcomes for lakes and wetlands.  

In addition, for more information, view:

• the Toolbox of mitigations in scenario modelling infosheet, which lists some of the mitigations used in the modelling
• the report Description of mitigation options defined within the economic model for Healthy Rivers Wai Ora Project

• a report detailing the assumptions included in the modelling (which will be available in late January 2016 on this page).

Where does Mātauranga Māori sit within the modelling framework?

Significant effort has been made to incorporate Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) into many aspects of the project. The  Mātauranga Māori infosheet outlines how it has been incorporated.

Mātauranga Māori has been incorporated into the integrated assessment framework. This framework ‘unpacks’ the social, cultural, economic and environmental effects of the packages of changes (land use and management) generated by scenario modelling. The following Mātauranga Māori indicators have been included:

• waitemata (water clarity)
• te rere (flow)
• paemakariri (temperature)
• he kai pai (edible food)
• te nui o ngā kai i te wai (abundance of fish species – koura)
• ngā tarukino me ngā ika rawaho i te wai (presence of pest weeds and fish)
• mātauranga ki ngā wai kaukau (knowledge of swimming places)
• au pūtea (economic benefit of water).

The Integrated assessment: baseline and scenarios report details how these indicators would be affected by each scenario.

Where does irrigation of land fit into the model?

Irrigation is included in one of the representative farm types included in the scenario modelling.

What is the cost if nothing is done?

It is thought that if nothing is done, water quality will worsen and become more difficult and expensive to fix. A ‘business as usual’ scenario that has been modelled indicates that nitrogen in particular would become an issue (due to the ‘load to come’ from groundwater and if intensification continues at the current rate) and that catchment-level profit would be likely to decline.

How will the plan change affect communities?

The plan change is not yet finalised, so we do not know how it will affect communities. The Collaborative Stakeholder Group is using scenario modelling and integrated assessment to assess the potential impacts

 

For more information, view the:

• full reports  on scenario modelling and integrated assessment
• Scenario modelling infosheet
• Integrated assessment framework infosheet

Current work

 

What funding and incentives are currently available?

A range of funding and incentives for landowners is currently offered by Waikato Regional Council.Funding of up to 35 per cent is available for a range of works such as stream, wetland and forest fragment fencing, planting in retired areas , planting for erosion control, plant and animal pest control within retired areas, and water reticulation where stock have lost access to water through fencing off streams. For more information, freephone Waikato Regional Council on 0800 800 401 and ask to speak to a catchment management officer in your area:

• Coromandel zone 
• Upper Waikato zone 
• Lake Taupō zone
• Central zone
• Lower Waikato zone
• West Coast zone
• Waihou Piako zone
• Waipa zone

The Waipa Catchment Plan is currently offering a range of funding to landowners in the Waipa catchment. Find out more about other assistance available. 

What’s being done about yellow flag iris?

Yellow flag iris, a pest plant that grows on the edge of waterways, does not affect water quality but can restrict recreational access and affect whitebait habitat. Landowners/occupiers are responsible for controlling it on their properties and have to work with Waikato Regional Council in areas where control programmes are occurring. View more information. 

What is Waikato Regional Council doing about koi carp?

Koi carp are currently restricted to the North Island, with their epicentre in the Lower Waikato River and connected lowland waterbodies. A containment boundary area has been set in an attempt to minimise their spread. Currently they can only be controlled in small areas, such as at spawning hotspots or in main migration routes. Waikato Regional Council and partner funding agencies have trialled a prototype automated koi carp removal and processing system at Lake Waikare. This proof of concept trial has been running for three years now and information from this locality will inform discussions for future carp control options and feasibility in the lower Waikato in the future.

How are urban areas and industry being managed, as well as farming?

Waikato Regional Council manages and monitors resource consents for activities such as municipal and industrial discharges that impact rivers. Resource consents allow discharge of water or wastes into water subject to conditions to help protect the natural environment, now and in the future. Farmers, iwi, industry, local government and other stakeholders have already done much to tackle water quality issues, and continue to do so. The state of municipal and industrial discharges to the Waikato and Waipa rivers have improved over time. Primary industry bodies are taking leadership, setting goals and taking actions that will make a positive difference to water bodies. One such example is the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord.Waikato Regional Council water management work includes Variation 5 policy to protect Lake Taupō’s water quality, which has seen great progress on reducing nutrients entering the lake and establishment of nutrient discharge caps on relevant farms around the lake. View more information. 

Is there anything that can be done in the interim to halt effects on the river?

Farmers, iwi, industry, local government and other stakeholders have already done much to tackle the issues, and are continuing to do so. However despite this work it is expected that, due to the effects of past land use and the load of nitrogen to come from groundwater entering surface water bodies, water quality in the rivers will worsen before it improves.

Can anything be done to restrict conversions?

Waikato Regional Council staff established some years ago that there was no legal mechanism under the Waikato Regional Plan, or via other means, for the council to impose a moratorium within a timeframe that would make any meaningful difference. 

Ahead of the plan change coming into effect, the council has been working to better understand and quantify conversion-related issues, and to look at what tools it and others might have to address any identified problems.

Current state

Where are we now (in percentage) in terms of achieving the Vision and Strategy? 

The Vision and Strategy requires the Waikato and Waipa rivers and their tributaries to be swimmable and safe for food collection. Many sites monitored in the Waikato and Waipa river catchments indicate the water quality is already suitable for fishing and swimming, however progress toward meeting the Vision and Strategy cannot easily be expressed in percentage terms. 

How safe is it to swim in the river?

In terms of water quality, it’s generally safe to swim in rivers if the water is clear enough to see submerged hazards such as rocks and logs and bacteria levels are low. You should also consider the current. There are warning signs about swimming in the Waikato River because the current can be very strong in places and is a safety hazard.We routinely monitor water clarity and E. coli (bacteria) levels, which indicate whether the water quality is suitable for swimming and other contact recreation.

River	Locations	Water quality’s suitability for swimming
Waikato River	Taupō to Hamilton	Suitable
	Hamilton	Suitable much of the time Clarity - often lower than the standard E. coli - levels mostly within the guidelines
	beyond Horotiu	Unsuitable Clarity - too low to swim safely E. coli - levels mostly within guidelines
Waipa River	-	Generally not always suitable for swimming. Clarity - lower than the standard E. coli - often above the safe level for swimming

How safe is it to eat fish caught in the river?

The Waikato River Independent Scoping Study (appendix 21) provides some information on the safety of eating fish from the river. The species, location, amount and parts consumed (for example, flesh or particular organs) all affect the level of risk of ingesting contaminants. If the Waikato District Health Board considered it unsafe to eat recreationally caught fish from the river they would issue warnings via the media and erect signage. Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora project partners do not have a public health role, so cannot provide advice on the safety of eating fish from the river.

What other contaminants are monitored?

Waikato Regional Council monitors the following aspects of water quality:

• dissolved oxygen (oxygen for aquatic animals to breathe)
• pH (acidity which can affect aquatic life)
• turbidity (can restrict aquatic plant growth)
• total phosphorus (can over fertilise aquatic plants)
• total nitrogen (can over fertilise aquatic plants)
• total ammonia (toxic to fish)
• baseflow water quality
• E. coli

The council also monitors the following in the Waikato River:

• 20 trace or ‘heavy’ metals
• over 100 pesticides
• algae, including potentially harmful blue-green algae.

What is the natural state of sediment in the Waipa River?

In pre-European times, the Waipa River catchment was mostly native forest, scrub and tussock. The river flowed through wetlands and peat bogs, producing its distinctive tannin-stained brownish colour. Its sediment levels would have been lower than today, but still higher than they were in the Waikato River. This is because of the catchment’s geology; the hills of the upper Waipā are especially erosion prone, due to the soft mudstone geology. Today, the Waipa flows through farmland with steep, erosion prone hillsides, so it carries a lot of sediment, making it a murky brown colour. Landslides and stream bank erosion produce most of the sediment in the river.

Impacts on water quality

Is there still raw sewage going into Waikato and Waipa rivers?

These days no raw sewage enters the rivers, and they are much cleaner than 50 years ago. Discharge of municipal sewage is controlled by rules and regulation. 

How does fertiliser use impact water quality?

Fertiliser contributes to the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in the river. However, the proportion it contributes is low when compared to the amount of nitrogen coming from animal urine and phosphorus coming from soil washed off farmland.

What about fluoride?

Waikato Regional Council does not consider fluoride levels in the Waikato and Waipa Rivers to be concerning. Fluoride occurs naturally in our rivers, often as a result of geothermal inputs. When municipal water supplies are treated with additional fluoride, some of that additional fluoride will be discharged back in to the rivers from wastewater treatment plants. These amounts are generally much smaller than fluoride coming from natural sources, such as geothermal springs. For example, monitoring results for the Waikato River show no difference in fluoride concentrations between sampling sites upstream and downstream of Hamilton City Council’s Wastewater Treatment plant. Fluoride concentrations in the Waikato River (around 0.2 milligrams per litre on average) and Waipa River (less than 0.1 milligrams per litre on average) are well below relevant drinking standards and guideline. The Ministry of Health recommends the fluoride content for drinking water in New Zealand be in the range of 0.7 to 1.0 milligram per litre, and the New Zealand Drinking Water Standard for fluoride is 1.5 milligrams per litre. Fluoride concentrations in the rivers are also not considered to adversely affect aquatic life. While there are no New Zealand or Australian fluoride guidelines for the protection of freshwater organisms, a recent study has reviewed the available data on the acute and chronic toxicity of fluoride to freshwater aquatic life and developed a chronic effects guideline of 1.94 milligrams per litre.

What about pollution from geothermal?

Natural geothermal activity contributes contaminants such as boron to water. The only significant geothermal power station discharges into the Waikato River, from Wairakei and Ohaaki power stations, are controlled by resource consents. The consents include conditions to protect the environment, and discharges are monitored and controlled. View more information on geothermal contaminants.

What about pine forestry and arsenic contamination?

Pine forestry does not contaminate land or water with arsenic. However, a mixture of chemical compounds containing copper, chromium and arsenic is used to treat wood to stop it rotting when used outdoors. View more information.

Ideas for solutions

What about tree planting beyond riparian strips?

Planting of trees beyond riparian strips, to reduce erosion and soil entering waterways, is one of the many factors the Collaborative Stakeholder Group has considered. 

How can we set goals but provide flexibility to achieve them (i.e. less regulation)?

One option that could provide landowners with some flexibility about how to meet set goals on their properties is the tailored property plan approach. The Collaborative Stakeholder Group asked for public feedback on tailored property plans in October and November 2015, and is using the feedback to help them develop a proposed plan change.

How practical is it to fence steep country?

Fencing steep country can be costly, and there is the increased risk of fencing being damaged by erosion and heavy rain. 

Other

Can people test the water on their properties so they can measure progress?

The answer depends on the contaminant being measured, its levels, and how it enters water. For example people could test water to measure improvements from better managed dairy shed effluent. However leaching and run off from contaminants from paddocks is difficult to determine, so this is usually done at a catchment scale.

How is science and knowledge being used to make decisions? For example, in deciding how wide riparian strips should be?

The Collaborative Stakeholder Group is using a wide range of information to develop a proposed plan change, including technical information as well as community knowledge captured by engaging with the community.

Technical information is provided by an impartial, advisory group of specialists, dubbed the Technical Alliance. It comprises a core seven member Technical Leaders Group, and a wider group of around 80 experts who can be called upon as required.  Collectively the Technical Alliance has expertise in:

• water quality
• soil stability and land management
• catchment and water quality modelling
• aquatic ecosystems (invertebrates, fisheries)
• riparian (land and water interface)
• mātauranga Māori (traditional and contemporary Māori knowledge)
• farm systems
• land management systems (across main land use types)
• economic outcomes (including at property and catchment level)
• social outcomes
• health issues associated with water quality.

View more information.

Science and knowledge is being used to identify and assess how:

• factors related to sources of contaminants affect water quality
• contaminants enter ground and surface waters from the land and from point source discharges.

Riparian buffer width is one of the factors being considered as a way to reduce contaminants entering water.

What is the extent of the catchments and rivers that are covered by this project?

This project covers the 1.1 million hectare Waikato and Waipa river catchments. It covers all water bodies in these catchments (rivers, lake, streams and so on), including groundwater. It does not however include geothermal water bodies. View a map of the catchments. 

Will conversions be limited at an early stage?

As at December 2015, the plan change has not yet been finalised, so it is too soon to say.

Where does the harvesting of energy from the river fit in?

Dams change the upper Waikato River from a fast moving river into a series of lakes. This slows down water flow and affects the riparian areas surrounding the lakes. The reduced flow rate provides the time for:

• sediment in the water time to settle out, making the water clearer
• UV light from the sun to kill off bacteria
• algae to grow.

Although the dams significantly affect the Waikato River, they also provide a large amount of power, which contributes to the regional and national economy. They are not the main contributor to the decline in water quality, but another factor influencing our river system.

Hydro energy has been incorporated into Healthy Rivers/Wai Ora in a number of ways, including:

• an energy sector representative on the Collaborative Stakeholder Group
• a Collaborative Stakeholder Group field trip in September 2014 to learn more about the about the energy, industry and forestry sectors in the Waikato and Waipa river catchments
• technical information provided to the Collaborative Stakeholder Group on the effects of the hydro dams on the Waikato River’s water quality.

What about stock exclusion from harbour margins?

The geographic area covered by Healthy Rivers: Plan for Change/Wai Ora: He Rautaki Whakapaipai does not include any harbour margins. However, where harbours exist, a rule in the current Waikato Regional Coastal Plan prohibits livestock in mangroves, saltmarsh, eel grass or on muddy substrata. There are no rules for livestock on beaches or rocky coastlines. The coastal plan says Waikato Regional Council will consult with:

• local authorities, farmers and farming organisations to ensure they understand the purpose of the rule, and to ensure livestock management does not adversely affect water quality, coastal sediments or vegetation
• encourage local authorities to prevent damage to dune areas and other fragile margin habitats from livestock and horses.

Can biodiversity be improved?

Improved biodiversity can be a benefit of improving water quality. Measures to reduce the amount of contaminants entering water bodies can benefit habitat, and vice versa. For example, riparian margins help filter out contaminants, thus reducing their impact on waterways. They also benefit habitat by providing shade, food and shelter for aquatic life and reducing stock trampling of spawning areas and beds. Conversely, measures to benefit habitat, such as protecting wetland areas, can also reduce the amount of contaminants entering water. Measures purely to benefit habitat, such as culverts which assist fish passage, will become part of the wider Waikato Regional Plan review. 

What are the criteria for river monitoring sites? Are any more sites planned?

The current network of monitoring sites aims to provide river locations that are reasonably uniformly distributed across the region, and represent existing land uses and river types. The network was established 20 years ago and one of its strengths is that it has been maintained close to its original design. As at December 2015, Waikato Regional Council is not planning any more river monitoring sites. However, once the plan change is finalised, more monitoring sites might be required in the future.

What will it cost?

As at January 2016, the plan change has not yet been finalised, so it is too soon to know what it will cost. 

What’s the difference between Waikato Regional Council, Waikato District Council and the Department of Conservation?

Waikato Regional Council works with communities to manage infrastructure and natural resources, such as fresh water, land, air, geothermal and coastal marine areas. We undertake activities such as transport planning and natural resource management at a regional level, but work closely with Waikato District and other district and city councils, who look after services like water supply, waste water and storm water. The Department of Conservation protects and restore species, places and heritage, and provides opportunities for people to engage on public conservation land throughout New Zealand.

What about stoats?

If more waterways are fenced and planted, habitat for stoats would increase. If this were to occur, Waikato Regional Council would work with landowners on controlling these pests.