Dairy farming still driving decline in New Zealand water quality: environment watchdog

The expansion and intensification of dairy farming is continuing to degrade New Zealand's water ways despite government policies to reverse the damage, the country's official environment watchdog said Friday.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr. Jan Wright issued a landmark report two years ago warning of "weeds, slime and algae" clogging waterways if the country continued to sacrifice its "clean green" brand for greater returns from dairy products.

The pollution of waterways caused predominantly by nutrients used in dairy farming had likely been "underpredicted" in the 2013 report, Wright said in a follow-up report on Friday.

The update report contained new information that was unavailable two years ago, including figures on land use changes.

These showed that from 2008 to 2012, about 157,900 hectares had been converted to dairy land, while sheep and beef land diminished by 151,700 hectares and forestry land shrank by 9,600 hectares.

"It shows that the conversion of sheep/beef farms to dairy farms has continued. However, the predicted increase in forested land has not begun to occur," said the report.

"This is not good news for water quality."

To its credit, the government had invested heavily in developing policy to improve the management of fresh water, Wright said in a statement.

"But we are not out of the woods yet. Some lakes and streams are below bottom lines and many others are not far above them. And in many places, water quality continues to decline," she said.

She recommended that regional authorities prioritize the protection of vulnerable water bodies and catchments to avoid the greater cost of restoring them later.

The government's review of its water quality policy next year was an opportunity to ensure that it would actually lead to better water quality.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said the update report challenged the government on its next steps to improve freshwater management, and ministers and officials would consider the recommendations.

"Our plan is to have a discussion document out on the next steps in freshwater reform early in 2016," Smith said in a statement.

The Federated Farmers industry body issued a statement saying it agreed with most of Wright's recommendations and called for greater clarification of the government's water quality policy.

However, the opposition Green Party repeated its call for a moratorium on further land conversions into dairy pasture in light of the findings that dairy was causing further deterioration to waterways. Endi