Freshwater health crisis – preventative medicine urgently needed…
In the quiet of the wee hours this first day of 2017, while reflecting on the many lakes and rivers I have worked on and loved over the past 45 years, my thoughts inevitably turned to what I have seen taking place over the years and how some of our water bodies have moved beyond the ‘intensive care’ stage – beyond help and into the hospice, so to speak!
Take Lake Tutira, for instance, a peaceful clear lake full of wildlife, native fish and trout in the early 1950s, and the most popular lake in Hawkes Bay for fishing, swimming, picnicking and just relaxing by. The deterioration that took hold in the mid 1950s has rendered the lake a real cot case. Last summer for the first time in New Zealand we witnessed a lake of medium size become completely anoxic, with dead fish and other lake denizens floating on the surface and stranded around the shoreline. Already the signs are for a repeat this summer. I could, and should, write a book about the rapid decline of Lake Tutira and all the futile attempts to turn conditions around to prevent this horrific finale. After all, my first assignment on joining the Fisheries Management Division of Agriculture and Fisheries 43 years ago was to undertake a major four-year manipulation of the lake to keep oxygen circulating through the water column of Lake Tutira during summer. Now my advice would be to retire farming from the entire catchment, artificially oxygenate the lake during summer and use aluminium sulphate to precipitate nutrients out of the water column and onto the lake bed. This might be achieved at a prohibitive cost but what would be the point? It’s unlikely the lake would ever regain water clarity, native weed beds and a healthy self-sustaining trout fishery.
Swirling khaki and grey bloom of blue-green algae on the surface of Lake Tutira, 1973
The poor Selwyn River came next to mind in my early morning reverie. Despite its vulnerability to low flows during summer, this Canterbury river was still lovely to swim in on a Sunday’s picnic in the 1950s. No longer, the Selwyn is now in the hospice as are both Lakes Ellesmere and Forsyth.
Losing our lakes and rivers, one by one, to intensification of farming is at last beginning to impinge on the consciousness of the wider community – why, oh why, didn’t this happen years ago when the lakes and rivers were giving us all the signs that they were in trouble? It’s way too late now and nursing many of these poor water bodies back to health is unlikely. Application of fertilizers, abstraction of water from our rivers to irrigate pastures, and even the importation of huge tonnages of palm kernel as supplementary feed, all facilitate a one-way movement of nutrients from the land into our waterways.
And it isn’t just the flows, water quality and river channels that are being completely modified – landscapes too are going though a transformation in an unending bid for higher farm productivity. I began noticing very significant changes taking place while driving frequently between Canterbury and Southland and inland through the Mackenzie Country. First, all vegetation including shelter belts, were removed to leave bare ground ready for planting. Soon the undulating landscape was green and more recently, dotted with pink and blue plastic bales – ironically to raise awareness of breast and prostate cancer – despite being completely at odds with the landscape and creating serious plastic pollution. Then in came the giant automated irrigation systems with their kilometer-long moving spray units dispensing water from our rivers and streams and creating green circles, like tumours, in places such as the iconic tawny landscape of the Mackenzie basin. I was also puzzled at all the many large ponds suddenly appearing until I realized they were artificial and had been dug to capture the rain before it could even reach our streams and rivers.
And finally, to what all this manipulation is about – dairy cows! Initially herds increased to a hundred or so, but quickly herd sizes escalated and in some of the larger farms many hundreds and even thousands of cows are reared and milked. Now specially surfaced urine and dung soaking tracks are required to move cows to the milking sheds. But there’s nothing more depressing than witnessing herds pugged up to their knees in mud, with no obvious feed and no shelter on a cold, wet winter’s day. And we have to remember they’re just the innocent victims – our wrath should be directed at those who have promoted and allowed such intensification and its effects. Sure, most of us use milk, but somehow we have been conned into thinking that feeding the escalating millions of babies being delivered onto our planet is a humanitarian act rather than an act primarily to do with $$.
The politicians have even excluded the potent greenhouse gas methane, which stock belch out, from any efforts to reduce our total climate change emissions, despite the significant contribution methane makes. An incredibly short-sighted abdication of our global responsibilities don’t you think?
And are the farmers happier and better off? With debt outweighing income it’s hardly likely, as many farmers who have over-capitalised on expansion and intensification during the good times face the possibility of bankruptcy when milk and milk powder prices fall – certainly suicide figures are an indicator of the depths of despair some dairy farmers are experiencing.
For me though the greatest irony was a recent report of Ashburton water users having to take their domestic water supply from stock water races because the bores are being depleted by irrigation to sustain the dairy industry. A pretty powerful message, wouldn’t you say, when the community must line up behind unsustainable herds of dairy cows for their drinking water. And to think the public subsidise dairying by having to pay for its deleterious effects whilst also paying the ultimate price of losing our precious water resources forever.
And what of our ‘clean green image’? Our burgeoning tourist industry is reliant on this Public Relations message but it seems this and the dairy industry, two of the highest earners for the country, could well be on a collision course. Indeed ‘no swimming’ signs, putrid streams and scum-covered lakes will convey a very contradictory message to the expected millions of visitors on tourist coaches, in camper vans and in rental cars filling our roads, picnic spots and camping sites.
The only hope for our rivers and lakes, such as lovely Lake Wanaka, that have not yet reached the intensive care unit is to take a preventative medicine approach by putting in place wide ranging and comprehensive strategies to prevent or at least slow what seems to be an inevitable long term outcome.
Finally, one fundamental question we all need to consider: Is the ongoing sacrifice of our, lakes, rivers and landscapes warranted?
It’s up to you to decide.
Then compare the swirling khaki and grey bloom of blue-green algae on the surface of Lake Tutira, 1973, to Council’s publicity and images below… note their comment that Lake Tutira “was an early call for environmental care.” (??? We underlined it)
Lake Tutira and the Tutira Recreation Reserve is located approx 50km north of Napier.
Access – Entrance alongside SH2, 41km north of Napier and 77 km south of Wairoa, driving access through wildlife reserve to country park.Lake Tutira and Waikopiro sit in the steep hill county between Napier and Wairoa and were, at one time, thought to be doomed to silt up and turn into a swamp before vanishing. 
• Camping ($5 per night) short stay only, water, composting toilets; no kitchen or shower facilities.
• Fishing, swimming, boating – take note of signs about periodic algal blooms
Descriptions and photos from DOC to encourage tourists and promote NZ’s 100% Pure image are similar…
As Laurel Teirney suggests, it is up to you to decide “Is the ongoing sacrifice of our, lakes, rivers and landscapes warranted?” and who is telling the truth…
Further comment from Laurel Tierney on another jewel in the “100% pure NZ” crown :
Focused attention required
There needs to be a single group dedicated solely to improving the health of Lake Wanaka, the writer argues. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery.
Lovely Lake Wanaka needs our help,
Laurel Teirney writes.Lake Wanaka has just joined an increasingly long list of “troubled” New Zealand lakes. Perhaps the worst is Lake Tutira, a North Island lake that became anoxic (completely devoid of oxygen) last summer, resulting in a major fish kill in the once popular trout fishery. Now, notices about fishing rules are accompanied by warnings not to swim.No-one would say Lake Wanaka is anywhere near that condition — having low nutrient concentrations typical of our deep “clean” southern lakes. All the same, an unusual alga was first noticed in Lake Wanaka in 2004 — the diatom Lindavia intermedia. This has a tendency to clump together, becoming visible to the naked eye as “lake snow”.However, since then, it has transformed into what is aptly named “lake snot” — an assemblage of the diatom, bacteria and mucus. “Lake snot” hangs in strings in the water column, so it wasn’t long before fishing lines, boats and even some swimmers in the 2016 Challenge Wanaka event found themselves fouled. Simultaneously, lake snot was causing havoc to the Lake Wanaka water supply, blocking intake filters. And residents were reporting problems with their washing machines, dishwashers and garden sprinklers.The lake scientists working on the problem haven’t got all the answers yet but it seems likely that small increases of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and micronutrients), together with warming associated with climate change (2016 set to be the hottest year on record in NZ and the globe), could be contributing causes.So where are these nutrients coming from?Returning from a Rob Roy Glacier walk, I had to negotiate, as usual, the inevitable trail of cattle dung and witness cattle grazing the riverbanks and freely watering/relieving themselves in the river. But more disturbing was the sight of two topdressing planes spreading loads of fertiliser over the valley floor and well up the scrubby hillsides all day.Tenure review has resulted in an intensification of back-country farming practices that add nutrients from fertiliser and stock in a one-way process from the catchment into the lake.Burgeoning development in the town is also delivering a whole range of undesirables into the lake — most obvious of which is sediment from multiple new subdivisions. During one of an increasing number of intense rainstorms, likely associated with climate change, a damaging slug of sediment was sent from a subdivision down spring-fed Bullock Creek into the lake. Stormwater drains carry every type of chemical from road surfaces and town facilities into the lake. And lawns and gardens where fertilisers and pesticides are applied regularly represent a mosaic of mini farm paddocks through the town.So, how can we prevent our lovely lake from succumbing to the effects of increasing nutrients and other inputs?Already, moves to set up a sound lake monitoring programme are under way and the sooner this can be implemented the better. Without adequate data about changes in lake water quality scientists are hampered in applying techniques that will point to effective solutions.These solutions can best be put in place if they are integrated into a comprehensive Lake Wanaka and catchment management plan. Recently, a number of groups motivated to do something positive for the lake have been established, but as yet there is no single group focused solely on Lake Wanaka.An integrated group needs to include representatives of the community of lake and land users, such as recreational lake and farming interests, selected by their own interest groups. The statutory managers, Otago Regional Council, Queenstown Lakes District Council, Ministry for Primary Industries, Land Information NZ, Department of Conservation and Fish and Game all have a place because they have the necessary tools to implement the strategies of the group. And Ngai Tahu, as partner to the Crown and its agencies, with a proven record of environmental stewardship, is integral to the group. Finally, scientists are critical because their advice will underpin the development of effective remedies.The leadership of such a group ideally needs to be knowledgeable about all aspects of lakes and able to keep the group happily focused on delivering a management strategy for Lake Wanaka and its catchment. Admittedly, this is a challenging task, but by no means impossible. A textbook example of such an integrated, community-driven approach successfully resulted in the 2005 Fiordland Marine Management Act. Valuable lessons from the experience of the Fiordland Marine Guardians could well be applied to help Lake Wanaka.We just need to get together and make it happen for our lovely Lake Wanaka.
● Wanaka resident Laurel Teirney is an aquatic scientist, facilitator and writer and a former Guardian of Lake Wanaka.