Pro-polluter planning laws announced today will make it easy for polluters to pollute the country’s freshwater with little to stop them, say campaign group Choose Clean Water.
The Government’s planning reform announced today claims it will protect the environment but has so many loopholes for polluters and their pollution to get through that it will inevitably lead to more polluted freshwater, says Choose Clean Water spokesperson Tom Kay.
“The detail needs some breaking down and background information,” says Kay, who has worked on freshwater policy for over a decade.
“But essentially there are few if any backstops for the protection of freshwater. It’s got more holes than an old sieve.”
First, the Government will allow for limits that do not protect the environment (i.e. that don’t protect ecosystem health) if a justification report is prepared. Additionally, without clarity about what the Government says ecosystem health limits will be, it is likely that a pro-polluter Government would set limits that don’t protect ecosystem health as they have in the past.
The Ministry states this as, “The Government will retain flexibility to be able to set minimum levels for ecosystem health. There may be circumstances where a council and community consider it appropriate to set less stringent limits to those set by the Government, which is possible provided a justification report is prepared.”
“Profit-motivated lobbyists can and have pushed Governments in the past to set loose limits that do little to protect health,” says Kay. “The public has just spent the last decade pushing successive Governments to make freshwater limits stricter but with such holey planning laws proposed, it’s very likely we will see limits that don’t meaningfully protect people or nature at all.”
Secondly, human health and ecosystem health are allowed to be damaged by breaching limits if the Government thinks commercial interests in a region are more important.
The Ministry states this as “Setting limits will require a decision-maker to balance the protection of human health and the life-supporting capacity of the natural environment with social and economic aspirations of the country and the region”.
Thirdly, large pollution-driving infrastructure like the Ruataniwha Dam in Hawkes Bay would be allowed to contribute to water quality breaching human health and environmental protection limits, if the Government deems the infrastructure “critical” and if they have any action plan to address pollution “over time”. But Choose Clean Water says large dams are not critical unless you have the wrong farming system for the environment you are in, and the intergenerational damage caused to rivers by large dams is unlikely to ever be addressed over time unless the dam is removed, so the clause about managing back to limits over time is essentially meaningless.
The Ministry states this as, “Limits will be linked to specific geographic areas (management units), and resource use must be capped or managed through action plans. Exceptions will be available for critical infrastructure – but the limit will still apply, and the action plan will need to set out how the limit will be managed back to, over time.”
“As you head to your favourite swimming rivers or drink a glass of water that has come out of an aquifer this summer, take a moment to think about the future you want for yourself, your family and communities,” Kay says.
“If healthy waterways are important to you and your family, make a submission on this reform and don’t let this pro-pollution planning reform stand.”