Court scuttles pollution permits for farmers

A plan which could have forced up to 4000 Waikato farmers to get permits to spread nitrogen has been scuttled before it even got to first base.

The Environment Court dismissed the plan at a pre-hearing session in Hamilton yesterday, removing the need for a two-week hearing.

The Ecologic Foundation and Fish and Game New Zealand had appealed against Environment Waikato's regional plan, which does not specify any limits on nitrogen use by farmers.

Their appeal called for farmers in much of the Waikato catchment who spread more than 60kg/ha of nitrogen a year to have to apply for resource consent, a similar scenario to what is proposed around Lake Taupo.

Nitrogen, which pollutes waterways, is used heavily in the dairy industry to speed grass growth and most dairy farmers would exceed the proposed limit, using between 100 and 150kg/ha.

At the start of the hearing, lawyers for Carter Holt Harvey and Wairakei Pastoral asked the court to refuse discussion of the nitrogen-capping plan.

Carter Holt Harvey lawyer Robert Fardell said the move to bring in resource consent applications was a huge departure from self-management plans that the foundation and Fish and Game had proposed in submissions to the regional plan.

Most farmers would have absolutely no idea of what was proposed and had not had a chance to have a say. He said the court had no jurisdiction to approve the plan.

The foundation's lawyer, Kit Littlejohn, said nitrogen limits had been hinted at long ago. The council's regional plan had been in the making since 1998 and "no one can claim to be taken by surprise by this".

Judge Robert Whiting and commissioner Kevin Prime took just 15 minutes to rule out the proposal. Judge Whiting said the new submission was not fair, reasonable and within the scope of the original submission.

- NZPA