Last updated 14:20, June 26 2018
DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF
The Land and Water forum - scientists, business groups, environmentalists, recreationalists, and iwi - was set up to advise the Government on freshwater issues in 2009.
The Land and Water forum - scientists, business groups, environmentalists, recreationalists, and iwi - was set up to advise the Government on freshwater issues in 2009.
The thorny issue of iwi rights over water must be resolved otherwise tackling pollution will become "more difficult, costly and time consuming", a think-tank has warned.
And it says landowners may be taking on the uncertainty as the Government baulks at resolving the politically charged issue.
The Land and Water Forum has delivered its fifth and final report to Government today.
It makes a series of recommendations to ministers to try and halt the decline of water quality by 2020. And it says a moratorium on land use - like intensive dairying - may be needed to help clean up the most polluted waterways.
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Hugh Logan, chairman of the Land and Water Forum.
The forum also wants a dedicated Land and Water Commission.
It says the lack of progress on iwi rights and interests is a "critical gap" and is creating uncertainty for water users and those trying to manage freshwater.
"It may also be encouraging landowners to enhance their position through regional planning and consent processes. This situation is hindering progress towards establishing a more durable freshwater management framework."
Some consents set out the maximum amount of nitrogen loss that is allowed to occur from a property - and the forum says that could have the effect of firming or rights. "Strengthening the rights of some parties prior to resolving iwi rights and interests will be opposed by iwi and make the process of reaching agreement between Treaty Partners more difficult, time-consuming and costly, " the report warns.
The forum notes that some catchments are degrading more quickly than others. And the urgency with which councils treat declining quality also varies.
"Councils sometimes lack capacity to deal with urgent water quality issues," the forum says.
The Land and Water Forum says there are places where water "is being used beyond its environmental capacity" in a new report to Government ministers.
It wants the minister and regional councils to quickly identify the most at-risk waterways, the activities that are degrading water quality and a "plan-of-action". The minister could intervene if there is concern over the capacity or performance of a council, using the Resource Management Act.
The report says: "In some situations a moratorium on further land use will be needed. This would stay in place until a new plan had been developed."
Environment Minister David Parker had also asked the forum on recommendations for dealing with sediment. Phosphorus is carried into rivers and streams by sediment and the forum says it is a "significant" water quality problem.
Stock near waterways, intensive winter grazing, hill country cropping, building tracks and culverts and poor drainage management can all exacerbate the problem.
The forum recommends making participation in soil conservation and erosion control problems compulsory.
The forum was set up in 2009 to advise the Government on freshwater issues. Its members include scientists, business groups, environmentalists, recreationalists, and iwi, but Fish and Game, Forest and Bird and the Federated Mountain Club all withdrew in 2017.
Earlier this year Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor asked the forum for advice on preventing further decline in freshwater quality, managing sediment and controlling discharges of nitrogen to water.
The forum, which was funded by Government, is now expected to wind up its work.