Factory farm plan "called in" by Environment Minister

File photo / Mark Mitchell

Environment Minister Nick Smith has "called in" three applications for factory dairy farms in the MacKenzie Basin.

The applicants had applied to the Environment Canterbury for large dairy effluent consents but the consents will now be decided by a special board set up by the minister.

"I have 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," said Smith.

"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," he said in a written statement.

The consent applications from Southdown Holdings, Williamson Holdings, and Five Rivers involve nearly 18,000 cows being housed 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.

Cows would be housed in "cubicle stables" 24 hours a day for eight months of the year. For the remaining four months of the year, the cows would be allowed out of their stables for 12 hours each 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," said Smith.

"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 decision has been welcomed by the Environmental Defence Society whose president Gary Taylor said the Basin needs a viable economic future that "is not based on ripping off the environment".

Taylor said the call-in by the Minister will make it harder for the three companies to get a consent.

"My suggestion to the applicants is to rethink their entire project and decide whether they want to proceed or not," Mr Taylor said.

He said the board will consider the wider environmental impacts to the MacKenzie Basin which may not have been covered by the council.

The Board of Inquiry is headed by Environment Court judge Jane Borthwick and includes water engineer Michael Bowden, scientist Jim Cooke, Ngai Tahu's Edward Ellison and lake ecologist David Hamilton.

Smith said he had 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."

Meanwhile the Green Party have welcomed the decision, calling it a "a victory for the thousands of people who champion our environment, land, water, and animals."

Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said people had sent a clear message to the Government to take leadership on the issue.

"The companies who applied for these consents should abandon them now. The huge public opposition shows that these proposals are a step too far. We need a comprehensive plan for the future of this precious area, rather than a series of ad hoc applications which will see it slowly destroyed piece by piece."