Otago Fish & Game officer Nigel Paragreen says the organisation is deeply concerned about the state of the region’s environment.

A released Otago Regional Council (ORC) report suggests many of its freshwater bodies are in serious trouble and another five or more ORC-commissioned studies recently made public show the scale of water quality problems, Nigel said.

“It’s important we have a clear understanding of the environmental challenges facing our region,” he said. “The ORC has done a great job in commissioning this work and making it public.”

Nigel Paragreen PHOTO: Fish & Game

“Regardless of potential changes to the NPS-FM [National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management] we hope the region’s systemic water quality issues are front of mind for ORC councillors when deciding the next steps for the land and water plan.”

“The RMA requires that the ORC sustainably manage water.” 

Many of the reports were developed to inform the development of the Land and Water Regional plan and were likely released to the public at the end of 2023.

Nigel pointed to some ambitious changes the reports said were necessary to protect water health.

They include that current nitrogen and phosphorus loads may need to be cut by up to 50 percent, or at times more than 70 percent, to achieve the national bottom line in some catchments; current E.Coli loads in the same areas may need to be cut by up to 40 percent, or at times up to 80 percent, to meet a standard that is suitable for primary contact activities, like swimming or fishing.

Other information of concern from the reports included the findings that 64 percent of State of Environment monitoring sites did not meet one or more national bottom lines and even significant agricultural practice change may be unlikely to achieve the suggested reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus in many of the most-affected areas, Nigel said. 

“While no modelling is perfect, these studies align with what people who spend time on the water have been saying for years.”

National bottom lines were set as minimum standards, below which all water bodies would be considered degraded.

“Failing to meet this basic minimum standard on such a wide scale shows a level of freshwater degradation that cannot be ignored,” Nigel said.

Otago Fish & Game congratulates ORC leadership for acknowledging the region’s water quality is not good enough, Nigel said.

“We’re looking to the ORC to map out a pathway to restore our lakes, rivers, wetlands and estuaries.”