15 Sep 2011

Council looks to contain costs for small landowners

8:24 am on 15 September 2011

Waikato Regional Council is looking at ways it might be able to trim compliance costs for Lake Taupo lifestyle block owners who will have to get a resource consent to continue running livestock

Owners of some small blocks in the Lake Taupo catchment are facing the prospect of having to join larger landowners in applying for resource consents following a rule change to the Variation Five regional plan.

The plan aims to protect water quality in Lake Taupo by capping and reducing the amount of the nitrogen getting into the lake, mainly from pastoral farming on the surrounding land.

Under Variation Five, all Taupo landowners that run a farming operation have six months from July to apply for a resource consent to continue those operations if they decide to farm above the permitted activity levels.

The focus so far has been on assessing nitrogen discharge levels from about 200 larger farming operations and getting them signed up.

But the council's on-farm programme manager, Natasha Hayward, says there are about 1000 smallholdings in the catchment ranging from one to 20 hectares and the council estimates about 50 of those will also have to go through the process.

She says the council recognises costs are an issue for those smaller land-holders and It is looking at the process with a view to finding ways to minimise costs and make sure small blocks that contribute only small amounts of nitrogen to the lake get fair and equitable treatment.

Ms Hayward says that includes whether public funding used to cover bench-marking and nitrogen management plans for the larger land-holders can be applied to life-style blocks as well.

The regional council will hold an information meeting on 11 October for small block holders in the Lake Taupo catchment to discuss the changes.

The goal of the Lake Taupo protection plan is to lower nitrogen input into the lake by 20% by 2020.