Polluting Waterways may Spell Prosecution

Dairy farmers have been successfully prosecuted for polluting waterways in Southland and Environment Canterbury should follow the example, says Salmon Anglers' Association water quality spokesperson David Loomes. He said there were a number of places in the Winchester/Geraldine area where cows were regularly driven  through local streams and the pollution they were causing was killing off the fishery and making the water unsafe.

Mr Loomes said one pathogen, the Brandenburg strain of salmonella, used to be prevalent in the North Island but was now being found increasingly in the South Island. He believed it could be a case of North Island farmers bringing their bad habits south. Mr Loomes' theory might be borne out by the fact that Southland – part of a big dairying boom as North Island farmers  move south – has been the worst affected area so far. Last year, 40 Southland dairy farms had confirmed cases, compared with 10 in 1999 and none the year before. Total dairy cases grew from five in 1998 to 70 in 2000.

More than 60,000 dairy cattle were expected to move around the South Island over the next couple of months as farmers prepared for the new dairy season starting in June. That brings with it fears that Brandenburg could be introduced to more areas. Mr Loomes said Brandenburg could survive 10 days in clean water and up to three months if the water was  contaminated.

Mr Loomes said that if farmers allowed stock to graze the riverside they could destroy a river quite quickly by stripping the banks of vegetation, dropping effluent in the river, and eventually suffocating the river and killing the fishery with a layer of sediment. He said the Waikakahi Stream in the Waimate District in the  mid-1990s was a good example. An effort by local landowners had revived the river. Environment Canterbury scientist Adrian Meredith said the sediment was gradually washing down the river and there were signs of fish life.

Mr Loomes added that even stock crossings cause considerable damage and he believed the culprits should be prosecuted by Environment Canterbury. He commended Te Moana farmers Denise and Richard Tait for building a milking shed on each side of the Te Moana River rather than continuing to have stock cross twice a day. However, he said there had been suggestions that 270,000 dairy cows could one day be in the Rangitata area and with cows producing 14 times the waste of humans, that was equivalent to 3.5 million people living there.