Water restrictions threatening crops
Apple growers in Tasman district said unprecedented water restrictions imposed on them by the district council threatened the future of their multi-generational orchards - and didn’t add up.
The orchardists in Lower Moutere said only being able to use a third of their authorised water usage had caused financial losses and potential crop failure.
Some had breached the restrictions to stave off crop losses as the three month harvest season got under way.
Among them was third-generation grower, Stephan Clark.
“I’ve got 100 people working here at the moment with harvest and the packhouse, over 100 people; what do we do, [say] ‘sorry, there’s no work for anybody’?”
The stage 4 water rationing in the Moutere Eastern Groundwater zone was “well below” what his 85-hectare orchard needed to survive, he said.
The rationing meant a 65% reduction in the weekly amount users were authorised to take from bores in the zone, in between Motueka and Upper Moutere.
Something was amiss that growers in the zone next door had far fewer restrictions, Clark said.
Stage 4 rationing began in the eastern zone for the first time on February 12 after lesser restrictions started in January.
But for growers in Moutere western zone, around Motueka, stage 1 rationing (a 20% reduction) was introduced on February 19, followed by stage 2 in early March.
‘Something’s gone wrong somewhere that would effect our zone so much ... more heavily than anywhere else.
“We’ve all got the same weather,“Clark said.
Tasman District Council said the eastern zone’s restrictions were due to unprecedented lows recorded in the aquifer and an extremely uncommon dry spell.
But Clark said he had operated through drier conditions, including drought in 1998, without level 4 restrictions.
“The worst thing is, the water’s there,” he said.
The bores he took water from - all in the eastern zone - were “running great”, with clear water in, he said.
Clark didn’t believe Tasman District Council was testing water levels in the zone properly, with council measurements suddenly plunging in January, he said.
It was unfair that there were many bores on former orchards that weren't being used, and that other users had bigger allocations than they used, he said.
He and other growers believed the council had over-allocated water in the zone, allowing another operator to put a big bore in over the last year.
Eastern zone grower Ashton Wood said he could currently only irrigate half of the 90-hectare orchard he and his son ran.
Most of the apples this season were smaller than he had ever seen them - and most buyers wanted large fruit, the third-generation orchardist said.
It was possible they could find a market for the apples, he said.
But it meant less return per hectare, and he feared for next year’s crop.
They had had to stop irrigating some trees that had just been harvested to prioritise those still with fruit on, which risked the harvested trees not developing buds properly for next season, Wood said.
Meanwhile Clark said his land was deemed highly productive so couldn't be subdivided, and unlike sheep and beef farmers, he couldn’t move his stock to try to avoid losses.
If the problem persisted, the viability of horticulture in the region was in question, he said.
Tasman District Council said it managed restrictions on the Moutere Deep Groundwater Zones to manage the environmental risk to the aquifers that fed the water supply to farmers, growers and irrigators in the area.
If water levels in the aquifers were to drop too deep, they risked not being able to replenish fully when the winter rain came, spokesperson Tim O’Connell said.
By January 30, the eastern zone’s groundwater level reached its lowest depth on record – below the Stage 3 trigger of 31m - while the western zone’s groundwater level dropped at a lower rate over summer, he said.
“We expect to hold an end of summer review where we can reflect on what happened and assess the reasons for our decision-making.”
The conditions of the water permit for the new bore were set based on submissions from a number of involved parties, including the council, O’Connell said.
The consent was heard by an independent commissioner, appointed by the council, before the decision was granted, he said.