The Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) annual flyover programme to detect any waterway pollution begins this month.

“The ORC undertakes flights every year to gain a bird’s eye view on land use in the region to identify any potential risks to water quality,” ORC regulatory general manager Richard Sanders said.

“This season we’ll be taking note of any high-risk sites and will be visiting the area to inspect issues on the ground.”

There will be three sets of flyovers this season, covering North Otago, Southwest Otago and Central Otago, beginning in late May, then late June or early-July, and August. 

“A number of high-risk sites were identified last season and were followed up with farm visits to “ground truth” the aerial observations,” Richard said. 

“Overall, our compliance activity in 2021 showed that farmers had taken positive steps to plan and undertake winter grazing activities.”

For winter 2022 it is important that farmers have a grazing management plan in place and look to actively manage their grazing activity, he said.

Winter grazing for the 2022 season is managed under the rules in the Regional Water Plan, but most people will not need consent under this plan due to existing use rights.

Otago farmers should also be aware of several changes relating to national regulations for winter grazing for the 2023 season and beyond, Richard said.

He said the regulations in the government’s NES-FW (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) mean that by May 1 2023, if farmers can’t meet a set of permitted criteria, they should have a consent.

The addition of critical source areas (such as gullies and swales) in the regulations means farmers need to be thinking about how these areas will be managed, and they should be left ungrazed unless consent is sought.

An earlier resowing requirement has been removed from the regulations, with this now changed to establishing ground cover “as soon as practicable” after grazing, he said.

Richard also noted the removal of conditions around pugging, which have been changed to taking “all reasonably practicable steps” to minimise the effects of pugging on nearby freshwater sources.

Online resources about the changes are being updated and will be available in the coming months, he said.

ORC staff from across the organisation are attending field days and catchment group meetings for intensive winter grazing for this winter to discuss best practices.

“Staff are more than happy to attend workshops and do one-on-one farm visits,” Richard said

ORC’s consent public enquiries team can be contacted on [email protected] for regulation information, and for best practice advice for winter 2022, contact catchment advisors on [email protected].

PHOTO: Supplied