Lakes action plan starts with Okareka

As the healthiest of the group of sick lakes surrounding Rotorua, Lake Okareka has become the guinea pig in the search for solutions.

The water is still safe to swim in and algae numbers are relatively low, but scientists remain worried that the lake is starting to deteriorate.

So it has been chosen by Environment Bay of Plenty as the first of five lakes to receive an action plan to restore water quality by working out ways of reducing the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the water.

"The quality of Lake Okareka is, to all intents and purposes, not bad. But the worry is it will keep getting worse unless we do something about it now," says John McIntosh, Environment BOP's manager of environmental investigations.

"It's a good one to nip in the bud rather than try to fight a rearguard action.

"This whole action plan process is new to us, so we have to figure out how best to do it."

The other lakes identified as being sick enough to need action plans are Rotoiti, Rotorua, Rotoehu and the small Lake Okaro, 30km southeast of Rotorua.

But forming plans to tackle such a difficult problem takes time - time that some say is running out.

Environment BOP's Paul Dell, who has recently been put in charge of co-ordinating efforts to save Rotorua's lakes, accepts that some people feel the action plans are not progressing quickly enough.

"But I think that as we've been presenting information to people, they've seen we're not sitting on our hands and that there are some very complex issues here.

"The effects have happened over five or six decades and we're not going to fix it overnight.

"To try to jump in and find a silver bullet is not realistic," he says.

All eyes are now on the group formulating Lake Okareka's plan because it will become a template for others to follow.

Lake Okareka residents, the Department of Conservation, Fish and Game, Federated Farmers, local iwi, the Rotorua District Council and Environment BOP staff have been working since March on ways to improve the lake's health.

Too many nutrients have been seeping into the water from the community's 280-odd septic tanks, with contributions from animal effluent from farms, which cover half the catchment.

Preferred options will be presented to the public for comment in November. Mr Dell expects solutions will focus on installing a reticulated sewerage scheme, retiring some pastoral land and constructing more wetlands around the lake's edge.

"The beauty of these action plans is that we're taking a good, integrated look at the catchment, which is important," he says.

"We have to look at each solution in terms of whether it impacts on other aspects. For example, if you put in sewerage could there be increased urbanisation? Or if you retire land by planting more trees, could that affect the landscape?"

Mr Dell says community participation is important because locals will be directly affected by the changes that will follow.

At this stage it is expected the solutions for Lake Okareka will cost about $6 million, most of it for a sewerage system. But just who will pay the bill has yet to be decided.

Mr Dell says the Government will probably be asked to contribute once plans for all five lakes are in progress and local authorities have a better idea about the total cost.

"In any process you can come up with solutions but then the cold, hard fact is if they cost money."

Local pressure group the LakesWater Quality Society is adamant the Government needs to step in.

The group's chairman, former National MP for Rotorua Ian McLean, calls the problem a "national environmental disaster" and argues that other lakes, including Wakatipu at Queenstown, will be affected sooner or later.

The Lakes-Water Quality Society has criticised the speed at which action plans were being formulated, particularly for Lake Rotoiti.

But recent moves by Environment BOP and the district council to speed up planning work have been welcomed. Plans for all five lakes are now due to be finished or in progress by early next year.

Although a lot of work has yet to be done, Mr Dell is confident the plans will restore the lakes to health.