Russel Norman

Wellington, March 18 NZPA - An environmental lobbyist says dairying is getting dirtier and the Government should intervene and set easily-enforced standards to fight contamination of waterways and groundwater.

"The time has come for the Government to step in to prevent further pollution of New Zealand's rivers and streams by dairy farming," said Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.

"It's time for the Government to regulate the impact of dairy pollution with enforceable water quality standards."

Voluntary measures, which relied on individual farmers to make improvements to their practices and report their own progress, were simply not enough of an incentive, he said.

And another lobbyist, Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell, said it was unacceptable that the industry was going backward, and a significant minority of dairy farmers were getting away with completely unacceptable practices.

The Dairying and Clean Streams Accord between Fonterra, the Government and regional councils was set up after a bitter row between environmentalists and farmers over "dirty dairying".

It set voluntary targets to keep dairy cattle out of waterways, to treat farm effluent, and to manage the use of fertilisers and other nutrients.

But the latest annual "snapshot" progress report released today, showed the number of farms where effluent discharge complied with resource consents and regional plans had dropped for the second consecutive year.

The average level of significant non-compliance worsened to 15 percent in 2008/09 from 12 percent in the previous year. Farmers in Northland had the worst results, with full compliance listed at 39 percent in the latest year, down from 43 percent in 2008.

Compliance in Waikato fell to 41 percent from 48 percent and Canterbury declined to 43 percent from 46 percent. Taranaki -- where the regional council enforces stricter rules -- held steady on 96 percent compliance.

Dr Norman said Agriculture Minister David Carter should step in.

"Last year, the minister said that his Government's preference is for voluntary industry-led environmental management, but if the sector was not responsive, they would act.

"The sector is not responsive. It's time for the minister to make good on his promise. He is talking tough, but this means nothing without action," Dr Norman said.

Mr Carter told reporters at Parliament the latest figures were "unsatisfactory", and the deterioration in compliance was a "disturbing trend".

"There's only a few farmers letting the system down, but they threaten the reputation of New Zealand's dairy industry," he said.

Existing legislation and regulations were "satisfactory" but if they needed strengthening, "I would certainly look at it".

"The regional councils need to do more monitoring and be tougher with offenders," he said. "I think they can do a better job".

And the industry needed to acknowledge the problem "and step up to the plate," Mr Carter said.

"Farmers, themselves, need to be tougher on offending neighbours."

Most farmers were doing a good job, though some were breaching consents through ignorance.

"Then there are persistent offenders, and frankly, those are the ones we all need to deal with," he said.

But Dr Norman said the real picture of dirty dairying was probably worse.

"The last report before this one claimed -- based on self-reporting from farmers -- that dairy cattle had been excluded from 70 percent of waterways in the Auckland region.

"Yet a report from the Auckland Regional Council which randomly surveyed stream sites in the same area found that only 26 percent of dairying sites in the same region had an effective fence on both banks. This suggests the real picture could be much worse," Dr Norman said.

Labour Party water spokesman Brendon Burns said Mr Carter's promise to crack down on dirty dairying was "hollow".