Mike Joy : The Heavy Price of Our Waterways Pollution

A couple of landmark events have happened in the agriculture water space recently that must surely shake our faith in the dairy industry in NZ.

On sept 15th Bay of Plenty Regional Council announced that, in order to reduce the pollution of Lake Rotorua, it has signed a deal with a farmer to stop dairy farming. The deal is that, to save the lake, the public through taxes and rates pays the farmer to farm less intensively. This first conversion from dairy farming will result in 5.75 tonnes less of nitrogen ending up in the lake every year.

The council has other farmers lined up to do similar deals.

To halt the decline in lake-water quality, a 100 tonne reduction of nitrogen is required.

While nitrogen is a very valuable nutrient it becomes harmful when there is too much in the wrong places. Too much in lakes and rivers leads to excess algae growth. This over abundance of algae, referred to as algal blooms, has many harmful effects on freshwater life and on recreational opportunities.

We are faced with this excess nutrient pollution in waterways over most low land in NZ, mainly from agricultural land use.

Solutions include legislating, paying polluters to stop and then 'cleaning up'.