Wetland status drainage infringement
Rose Windle, Logan Solly and Philip Windle inspect the new grass in the developed paddock.
“Tidying up” and clearing drains on wet land in Glenview Road is set to cost contractor Merv Solly and farmers Philip and Rose Windle $500 each in fines.
Mr Solly and the Windles have been issued infringement notices by TDC’s compliance staff for “diverting water from a wetland” in breach of Section 14 of the Resource Management Act (RMA). For the purposes of the act, a wetland is defined as permanently or intermittently wet areas and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals that are adapted to wet conditions.
Mr Windle said that the infringement notices were “bureaucracy gone mad”, but TDC environmental information manager Rob Smith defended the process.
“They’ve been caught by a process that’s changing,” said Mr Smith. “We want landowners to be able to operate but also to be cognisant of their impact on the environment. People in the community have higher expectations of landowners now. What was good practice for our parents’ generation isn’t always good now, and certainly won’t be good enough for our children. The community wants clean rivers and so on, and the RMA and the TRMP are clear about what constitutes a wetland and what you have to do before you’re allowed to divert any water. Wetlands have been identified as important ecosystems that are worth preserving. The TRMP represents what our community wants us to manage and conserve. Everyone had the right to make submissions on it.”
The Windles have leased the land from John Baigent for about a year and, when the Windles set out to clear the drains and convert the 1.5 hectare block to productive pasture, Mr Baigent readily agreed.
“I didn’t apply for a resource consent because I’d never had to before when I was clearing out existing drains,” said Mr Windle. “We contracted Solly’s to do the work and they did a great job. We spent a lot of money but we saw it as a worthwhile investment. I’ve farmed this area for 45 years and now I’m interested in providing work and opportunities to keep young people, like our sharemilkers Logan and Melissa Solly and their family, in the Bay. They’ve invested in this project too.”
The land in question is in the catchment of the Powell Creek, a tributary of the Motupipi River. According to council staff, the methods used for the clearing of the drains and riparian planting have also had silting implications further downstream. The Windles disagree.
Mr Windle says that the stormwater and sediment that made the land so wet comes from council land in the adjacent Rameka Creek Road. “The road drains straight into one of our paddocks,” he said. “We put a lot of field tiles in there a while ago, so now that water carries on into the 1.5 hectare block we’re leasing. I think the council’s got a cheek fining me for dealing with water they originally put on to my property.”
In his defence, Mr Windle also points to a “state of the environment” report entitled Surfacewater Quality in the Powell Creek Motupipi prepared in June last year by council staff members. The report states that “no significant wetlands have been identified in the Powell Creek catchment.”
Mr Smith pointed out that the report’s purpose was to determine baseline water quality prior to the implementation of best management practices on farms so that the effects of those practices could be measured later. “Identifying significant wetlands wasn’t part of the report’s brief,” said Mr Smith.
While Mr Windle admits that he had not read the report before undertaking the work in Glenview Road, he says that he is disappointed because council has now commissioned another report to establish the significance of the wetland. “They want this new report to contradict the earlier one,” said Mr Windle.
The GB Weekly was unable to obtain a copy of the new report because Mr Smith explained it is being used in “the current enforcement action that has not been concluded.”
The wrangle is symptomatic of the differing approaches to land management that exist in various sectors in Golden Bay. There are people who believe that landowners should be left to grow grass and increase production in a sustainable manner. There are also people who believe that some current farming practices are unsustainable and that landowners must be regulated to prevent them from contributing to long-term environmental damage.
It remains unclear how the matter will be resolved. Mr Smith said that it was possible for the Windles to apply for a resource consent for any further work on the land.
“Then the process would take over,” he said.
Neil Wilson
Wetlands - TDC’s approach
The Windles’ experience led them to warn other farmers to be cautious.
What follows is an extract from a TDC publication, Provisions For Wetlands, which was published in March 2005. Council has also published a Good Practice Guide to Wetlands.
“The Council recognises the benefits of good management of wetlands on private land. It acknowledges that landowners have an important stewardship role in the management of wetlands and the Council wishes to complement and support this role through establishing co-operative partnerships with landowners. The Council will provide advice and information about wetland values and ways to best manage them. It will also offer financial assistance for wetland protection works such as fencing. The Council encourages landowners to seek advice and information from the Council. It will adopt a proactive approach that reflects the need to protect wetlands and which will help avoid regulatory measures being required. Further information about the help and advisory service provided by the Council can be obtained from staff at the Richmond office.
“The Council is still collecting information about the numbers and quality of wetlands in the District. It expects to complete a wetland inventory by 2008, followed by a review of wetland management provisions.
“Until Council has collected sufficient information, a precautionary approach has been adopted and any wetland drainage or infilling requires a resource consent as a discretionary activity.”
