$50k bid to fight water plan
Federated Farmers is trying to raise $50,000 to challenge a controversial plan to improve water quality in Lake Rotorua.
But opposition to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Plan Change 10 (PC10) has been labelled “ridiculous” by a group working to improve the quality of the district’s lakes.
PC10 would introduce rules for rural properties in the Lake Rotorua Catchment, to limit the amount of nitrogen entering Lake Rotorua from land use.
To meet water quality standards set by the community, nitrogen entering the lake must reduce by 320 tonnes by 2032. Less than half of that, 140 tonnes, would come from these proposed rules, where landowners would need to make changes to their land use.
The plan is currently under mediation after four appeals were lodged in the Environment Court.
One of the appeals was lodged by Federated Farmers, which has called PC10 “flawed and risky”.
The organisation had now put a call out to members for donations to raise $50,000 for its legal challenge.
A post on the Federated Farmers website states PC10 “requires irreversible land use change to achieve a nitrogen target in circumstances where the science no longer supports the target. The impact on farmers in the catchment will be devastating”.
“We consider that it is necessary to appeal PC10 to the Environment Court in order to achieve a sensible, practical and affordable planning framework that achieves the water quality objectives.”
The appeal was likely to cost upwards of $50,000, the post states, as the organisation would need to “contract in expertise not available in-house to develop the planning, science and economic aspects of our alternative plan”. All money received would only be used for the benefit of Lake Rotorua Catchment farmers, the post stated. It was suggested farmers in the catchment contribute $1000 to $2000 each. A Federated Farmers spokesman said apart from one issue being mediated, it was “very likely that the majority of the appeal points will proceed to an Environment Court hearing”. The court had tentatively scheduled a conference next month to set a timetable for the hearing, he said.
Lakes Water Quality Society chairman Dan Atkinson described the appeals against PC10 as “ridiculous”.
“We believe Plan Change 10 is fair and reasonable,” he said.
“We went through a threeyear consultation process to try to avoid this.
“It seems to me to be ridiculous to be fighting a situation which was an honest effort from all parties.”
A regional council spokeswoman said the council was in the process of mediation with appellants to discuss and clarify the concerns they had raised.