Opinion: War on water pollution now

Black humour: Environmentalist Greg Carlyon has some strong words about water quality in the region.

Last week's Whanganui Science Forum address at the Davis Lecture Theatre saw Greg Carlyon of the Catalyst Group talk about water pollution under the topic heading "Horizons Regional Council: Missing in Action?" FRANK GIBSON got the lowdown.

Introduced as a hard-hitter who would give the inside scoop on environmental management in our area, Greg Carlyon of The Catalyst Group lived up to his billing.

His first slide showed a former mayor of the beautiful city of Whanganui while Greg related that former mayor's opinions about possible corruption and self-interest in regional government. Although Mr Carlyon found aspects of that former mayor difficult to deal with, he seemed to share some of his opinions on regional government.

Mr Carlyon praised the beauty and diversity of our region but pointed out that diversity meant the interests of one small part may be unrelated to -- or even at odds with -- another part.

This diversity provided a challenge for regional government, and he took this as his theme in moving from matu iti to matu rahi. Was this a reference to the old green mantra of "act locally, think globally".

The small beginning was the Tutaenui Stream -- close to Mr Carlyon's home -- which feeds reservoirs which supply water for Marton. These reservoirs are important to local people and so they have built a track around them which has increased the interest and the concern about these features.

Recent logging, supported by the local and regional councils, has made a total mess of the reservoir access road, and rain running down the torn-up road is feeding nutrients and sediment into the reservoirs at an unsustainable rate.

He pointed out that while this is happening, the district council is looking at ways of controlling algal blooms (largely caused by excess nutrient in the water).

This slide was followed by a photograph of a hose that discharges alum and auto treatment plant waste into the reservoir. Although the hose has been acknowledged by the council it does not have a consent. It was originally a trial to see if the alum would act as a flocculent to reduce the algal blooms in the summer.

We then saw an image of piles of concrete rubble that had been dumped along the stream with the support of the Horizons Regional Council with the aim of preserving the banks of a stream they say does not actually flow.

The concrete has now been removed, the stream boundary has been fenced and the community has planted about 1300 trees on the area. He gave great praise to the regional council staff for their support in this effort, and extended the praise to most landowners along the Tutaenui who are fencing the stream to prevent cattle access.

Mr Carlyon showed a streambed which is dry for five months of the year where the Tutaenui should be running. It loses its entire flow to the Marton water supply which means the ability of the stream to support aquatic life is zero for much of the year.

The council says the consent for taking this water does not expire until 2028; Mr Carlyon did not sound patient enough for this.

We then had an image of one of the 10 or so tankers per day that connect to the Marton sewage system and dump water that has leached from the Bonnyglen landfill.

This filth goes through the sewage system and a couple of kilometres downstream from Marton it goes into the Tutaenui stream. Downstream is an oxymoron as most of the time the natural flow is a few litres at best.

A bit of black humour to drive home the point. Mr Carlyon read the resource consent for this sewage outlet which said there must be no scum, foam or floatables; the water should be suitable for farm animals and should have no effect on aquatic life. The picture of the outlet showed a poisoned waterway breaching ammonia levels by a factor of 10 that could not support life.

The regional council has told the district council that this site is compliant.

From the matu iti we moved to the bigger picture and the apparent complexities of planning for water quality and conservation.

We were given an outline of the way Horizons' One Plan was developed for water quality. It was a simple process of defining geographical management zones and then assigning values to each of these zones.

Different people have different values and so assigning values can only be done through extensive consultation within each zone. These values could include things such as the river being clean enough for swimming or waste discharge into the river.

At this point the hard work starts. Having assigned values, we must develop standards which protect the values and, most importantly, apply these standards. Finally, we must build methods into the plan which reflect these standards.

These methods come under two headings. First is the carrot where councils work with and encourage companies and individuals to apply the standards. This has, in the past, been very successful.

However, the problem is of such magnitude and New Zealand water quality has plummeted in the past 20 years that the stick of enforced regulation is necessary. Hopefully, in the long term, this will cause a change in mindset.

There is only a certain amount of drinkable water in the world, so the effects of climate change and increasing population pressures make careful management vital.

The Stockholm Water Conference reported that future wars are more likely to be about water than oil. New Zealand needs to take positive action.

Frank Gibson (pictured) is a semi-retired teacher of mathematics and physics who has lived in the Whanganui region since 1989.