Rick Burke: 'Grandparenting' rules reward water polluters

Katikati farmer Rick Burke has seen the merits of retiring marginal land, protecting waterways and planting trees.

Fresh water and the environment will certainly become an election issue but the public, media correspondents, NGOs and even politicians fail to understand what's really behind a big part of New Zealand's deteriorating water quality.

Regional policies are failing to manage intensive land uses and, in some cases, creating management frameworks which protect and incentivise intensive farming to the detriment of not only the environment but other more sustainable land uses.

The effect of the Government's policy on freshwater management has led to some regional councils allocating pollution rights to farmers. This is called 'Grandparenting'.

The Grandparenting principle is based around historical use of nitrogen (N) by giving each property an N Discharge Allowance. Overseer Nutrient Budgets are then used to assess the nitrogen each property was deemed to be leaching over a set historical period.

Through the principle of Grandparenting, the high leachers - intensive farming systems - are allowed to carry on in an unsustainable manner.

Drystock farmers, low nitrogen leachers and organic dairy farmers on the other hand have their N-leaching capped at low levels. This locks them into a situation which gives no flexibility for system development or land-use change.

The low leachers become the whipping boys by providing clean water to dilute the high leachers' pollution.

Grandparenting has no scientific base. It's a crude expedient mechanism, a synthetic dial-up approach that simply rewards the polluters.

Gaming the system

Grandparenting incentivises gaming of the system. An example of this is farmers who are anticipating Grandparenting to be adopted by their regional councils, and who are reliant on using high levels of nitrogen, are loading up on nitrogen applications now so their historical records will allow them to continue the practice.

So you have to ask, is this a sustainable approach to managing water quality?

The principle of Grandparenting has been used by Canterbury Regional Council. There, once-swimmable rivers and coastal areas have been turned into a significant threat to human health, with nutrient overload causing algal blooms.

The high N leacher has been able to carry on unabated and, combined with irrigation on leaky soils, has led to this situation which is now threatening New Zealand's clean green reputation.

Now the Waikato Regional Council, through Healthy Rivers Waipa Waikato Plan Change 1 is heading down the same track. Two recent reports from the prime minister's chief science adviser, Peter Gluckman, and the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand highlight the issue that many freshwater systems continue to be under increasing stress from nitrate and total nitrogen, being driven from intensive farming and industrial and urban development.

So who is behind promoting the Grandparenting principle?

Don't point the finger at individual dairy farmers as they are only taking advantage of regulation. It's those who benefit from receiving the majority of the pollution allowances such as Big Business dairy.

Our Government has failed to take the necessary action to ensure those who are polluting water are faced with the cost of cleaning it up, and this failure to act or provide leadership supports the exploitation and degradation of natural resources.

At a recent Environmental Conference I attended, Environment Minister Nick Smith said the Government, through freshwater regulation, must achieve two objectives: It must be underpinned by robust, measurable scientific data; and it must embrace communities and sectors to drive the improvement in freshwater quality.

Double fail

The use of Grandparenting has no science base, and is unsustainable. It simply rewards the polluter and incentivises gaming of the system. Grandparenting has also failed to achieve Smith's second objective as it has divided sectors and communities. So that's a double fail, Nick Smith.

In Waikato, some farmers - mainly drystock, organic and low-leachers - are opposing the Healthy Rivers Plan Change for using Grandparenting to drive regulation.

Farmers For Positive Change, Primary Land Users Group, King Country River Care, and Sustainable Vibrant Communities Awareness Group, representing a total of more than 3000 farmers are among the groups formed to fight the plan change.

These groups want central government to outlaw Grandparenting and to incentivise policy and regulation for the common good of our communities, our farm systems and the environment.

They are promoting a sub-catchment approach, by empowering farmers and communities to work together to drive an improvement in freshwater quality. This requires an understanding of what level of contaminants are in their local tributaries and streams.

They want farmers implement a Farm Environment Plan to give an understanding of their land use suitability then take ownership and responsibility for contaminants leaving their farms. In some cases this may result in changes in land use to ensure landscapes are managed in a sustainable manner and our natural resources are preserved for generations to come.

Rick Burke is chairman of Farmers for Positive Change and 2014 Bay of Plenty supreme winner of the Ballance Environmental Awards