Horizons Regional Council is seeking public feedback on water quality across the region. Photo/ Bevan Conley
Horizons Regional Council is seeking public feedback on water quality across the region. Photo/ Bevan Conley
Horizons Regional Council wants feedback on potential targets for freshwater across the region and what it might take to achieve them.
Action that might be taken by Horizons - if the targets are set - could be planting native trees on erosion-prone land, using slow-release fertilisers, upgrading current wastewater systemsand excluding stock from having access to rivers and streams.
Horizons is still undertaking the economic modelling of what the potential cost of this work would be.
The work is in line with the Government’s plan for freshwater management and is the next step in the broader Oranga Wai process.
Community goals could be things like the awa being a great place to swim during summer or streams being home to communities of tūna and native fish, Horizons strategy, regulation, and science group manager Dr Lizzie Daly said.
“The target states are provisional - council has yet to make any decisions or propose moving forward with these water quality targets so community input into the process is crucial to assist with those decisions.”
Interactive maps on the Horizons website allow participants in the survey to view the amount of reduction required for E.coli, phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment across the region’s rivers and streams.
Horizons acknowledged the reductions “might be confronting for some people” but said no decisions had yet been made on whether to adopt the provisional targets or scale of change displayed.
