Labour welcomes greater monitoring of Waikato’s streams, lakes and rivers
Environment Waikato's (EW) plans to take a more intensive approach to monitoring of dairy farms during the 2010-11 season have been welcomed by the Labour Party.
"We are pleased that EW intends to lift its monitoring from 15% to 25% of Waikato dairy farms each year to check compliance with dairy effluent rules", say Labour's Environment Spokesperson Charles Chauvel, and Labour List MP and Candidate for Hamilton West Sue Moroney.
"We were concerned to learn that last year's monitoring revealed a 25% increase in events where untreated effluent was, or was at risk of, entering water sources. But we are encouraged that EW says that in 80% of cases its re-inspections show improved effluent management," Mr Chauvel said.
"Increased monitoring is likely to lead to increased compliance," Sue Moroney said.
"We agree with Environment Waikato that the significant non-compliance in the Waikato with effluent management is mainly due to effluent management system problems rather than farmers deliberately flouting the rules.
"But there is an urgent need for New Zealand to clean up its waterways, so we need to see action taken on inadequate storage and poor containment facilities for effluent and sludges, or irrigators applying effluent too heavily."
"We agree that farmers, industry organisations and suppliers, and EW will all need to work together closely to lift compliance levels. We congratulate EW on its initiative and will be monitoring progress toward cleaner water in the Waikato closely.”
