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Water plan alarms farmers BY MICHELLE NELSON MICHELLE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers and industry groups are scrambling to deal with a new set of rules aimed at improving water quality – which they fear will halt farm development. Environment Canterbury announced yesterday that controls on the leaching of nitrates will, for the first time, be set by the Land & Water Regional Plan, which covers a wide range of land-use activities with an impact on the quality of water. While ECan says the plan covers urban and rural settings, farmers feel they have been targeted. Hearing commissioner Peter Skelton says that once the rules are in full effect next year, farmers and land users will be required to manage and improve their environmental performance to reverse the decline in water quality.
“This is a core focus of the plan because activities in rural areas greatly affect the quality of our water, much of which is found underground,” professor Skelton said. Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers provincial chairperson Chris Allen was unavailable for comment yesterday. He has been involved in a group which included Federated Farmers, DairyNZ, and the Foundation for Arable Research which made submissions on the plan prior to notification. It is understood he was in a meeting to discuss the ramifications yesterday. On a number of occasions, Mr Allen has said farmers were not opposed to nutrient limits but were concerned about the Overseer tool used to measure nitrogen leaching.
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