Dramatic irrigation expansion defies science
green-party
Thu Aug 05 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Dramatic irrigation expansion defies science
Thursday, 5 August 2010, 2:57 pm
Press Release: Green Party
Dramatic irrigation expansion flies in the face of science
The Government’s plan to subsidise massive irrigation schemes in places like Canterbury flies in the face of science, the Green Party said today.
"Research from NIWA shows that irrigated dairy expansion will cause dramatic environmental decline, especially in water quality," Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said.
"Those who claim that the environmental effects of a dramatic increase in irrigated dairying can be avoided are spinning greenwash. The science is clear - more intensive dairying will result in even more water pollution."
Agriculture Minister David Carter yesterday told Parliament that accelerating water storage and irrigation was high on the Government’s agenda, and this morning signalled his support for a massive irrigation canal in Canterbury.
Dr Norman said the NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) report released last month showed that water quality is degrading in our major rivers due to intensification of irrigated dairying.
"The research found that the upward trend in levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and water temperature in our major rivers has accelerated in recent years," Dr Norman said.
The recently released NIWA report states:
"pastoral farming… is undoubtedly the main source of diffuse pollution...(and) streams in dairy land are among the most polluted.
"The inconvenient truth is that the cause of the decline in water quality is the intensification of land use.
"There is no doubt that our declining river water quality over the last 20 years is associated with intensification of pastoral farming and the conversion of drystock farmland to dairy farming, particularly in Waikato, Southland and Canterbury.
"...dairy farming is a leaky process....the average nitrogen lost from the soil on dairy farms was 39 kg per hectare per year...
"Best management practices can only do so much...(we are) concerned about the expansion of dairying into high rainfall or heavily irrigated areas where there is a greater risk of contaminants getting washed into waters."
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Dr Norman said the Government’s response flew in the face of scientific evidence: "John Key’s Government wants to increase intensification using large scale taxpayer subsidised irrigation projects, and pretends that the environmental effects can be somehow avoided.
"There are some actions farmers can take to reduce pollution, such as riparian planting and fencing and nutrient budgets, but there is no way to stop pollution from the intensive agribusiness that this kind of irrigation will fuel.
"The Canterbury plains are a classic example of a high-risk, heavily irrigated area where nutrients travel straight through the gravel soils into the already polluted aquifer.
"To intensify irrigation and agribusiness flies in the face of science and shows how little regard this Government has for our rivers, lakes, and aquifers.
"Our kids have a birthright to swim in these rivers in the future, and plans like this will deprive them of it.
"This is John Key’s ‘balance’ in action – trading-off a bit of profit for a few big agribusinesses against the loss of the rivers and lakes that are loved by all New Zealanders," Dr Norman said.
_Link
_The NIWA report - How Clean are our rivers?
http://www.niwa.co.nz/news-and-publications/publications/all/wa/vol.-18-no.1-july-2010/rivers
ENDS
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