VAHRYOUS THOUGHTS
Wow, those were tough penalties imposed by the Environment Court (see story ‘Big fine/costs for NZFWDA over RMA breaches’ in the Feb 2020 issue of NZ4WD) on a first offence for a breach of water quality!
It certainly appears that four-wheeling was to be made an example of. Compare that Wellington decision to a relatively recent Auckland prosecution that collectively fined a landowner and the manager of a property developer the sum of $ 67,000 for discharging sediment off a construction site in the suburb of Remuera.
Will the Greater Wellington Regional Council prosecute as a result of the huge wastewater discharge into Wellington Harbour from the failure of an old sewer line, or will that be regarded as an accident in the same fashion at the sewer pipe collapse in Taupo that put some 800,000 liters of wastewater and sewage directly into Lake Taupo? The Waikato Regional Council concluded that the Taupo event was an accident, which is allowed under Resource Management rules.
However, the precedent for four-wheeling has been created, which I’m sure a number of other regulatory bodies will have noted. It’s really only been a matter of time before we were caught up in those rules about sediment, as more and more attention has been given to clarity of waterways.
The Ministry for the Environment has a document on its website called “An everyday guide: Getting in on the Act” that explains…
“The Resource Management Act 1991 (usually called the RMA) is the main piece of legislation that sets out how we should manage our environment. It’s based on the idea of the sustainable management of our resources, and it encourages us (as communities and as individuals) to plan for the future of our environment.
“This doesn’t mean that we have to get rid of our cars, stop building things and plant only native trees on our farms. The RMA is really more concerned with managing the effects our activities have on the environment so that the environment doesn’t suffer.
“We need to think about how our activities today can affect the future – to keep our eyes and ears open and to do what we can to stop other people’s behaviour that might damage the environment. The RMA also encourages us to get involved in deciding what’s best for the environment.
“Perhaps most importantly, the RMA expects us to tell our local councils what we value about our environment, so that they can look after it for us. This is because we – as locals – are best placed to know our own surroundings, and we should be involved in deciding what needs to be protected and how. While the RMA provides a guide to what’s important in our environment, it generally leaves the decisions about how to manage the environment in the hands of the local community.”
I’m sure that I’ve written about sustainable management previously and some of the things that our recreation needs to consider if we are to not be further targets for RMA offences. Perhaps the obvious one is to ensure that waterborne sediment does not leave the property where vehicles or other machinery have been stirring up the soils. There are methods to prevent or minimise silt transfer, such as settling ponds or filter mediums. Those filters might be just an area of forest floor, a swamp or introduced materials like straw bales and filter fabrics.
If soils have been exposed, they can be impacted by water. Rain will break up loose soils and transport those particles quite easily in many situations. Protecting disturbed soils with material to reduce the impact of rain can work well to reduce silt creation and might be achieved by just laying cut plant material like Manuka slash over the soil. Again, various other options like fabrics or straw can provide that reduction of soil movement.
Fully stabilising those loose soils is the ultimate aim and getting plants established to bind the soil is possibly the easiest solution. They don’t need to be expensive, or examples of forest giants, in fact they should be what are often referred to as ‘colonisers’ … things like grasses, flaxes, manuka, etc. There are usually preferences that such plants are ‘eco sourced’ whish indicates that the parent plants were from a similar region to that where you intend to plant. Replanting areas of earthworks is an important signal that identifies a respect for ‘sustainability’.
Some areas of soils, like the tracks themselves, won’t support vegetation if frequently used, so we need to slow water flows to avoid scouring and ensure that any water is managed for sediment removal before it leaves the property. Again, I’ve said it before... we can still have mud holes but they will need to be carefully sited to avoid muddy water reaching any water course and streams can be crossed, if the part being crossed is not going to generate a muddy disturbance.
We’ve been reminded of some of the rules that the wider community expect to be observed as a part of the push for environmental sustainability and the clarity of our water, so if we don’t want to be branded as toxic in the way that dairy farming and mining have been by many commentators, we’ll need to pay attention.