Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

Last year the Bay of Plenty Regional Council received a report on the water quality of our region's rivers.

While it was a better picture than seen in many other regions, it did show a declining quality trend. It was particularly concerning that just over half of our monitored rivers had nutrient levels which could lead to undesirable growths of algae and/or aquatic plants. As a result, it was decided to develop a work programme for identifying river and stream catchments at risk of poor or declining water quality.

Since this time, the National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater Management has been released which requires the establishment of freshwater objectives and the setting of water quality limits for all bodies of freshwater. Once limits are set, actions must be taken to improve the water quality for those water bodies that do not meet their objectives. Implementation is required by 2014 but an implementation programme must be adopted by December 2012.

Council recently signed off the scope of a project to deliver on the NPS and investigate rules to more aggressively manage water quality in our Water and Land Plan. This is a substantial body of work since we will need to address each catchment in the Bay of Plenty. It will take a lot of staff time and cost a significant amount of money. There will be a consultation programme to enable public input into what is proposed. These are all very positive steps to safeguard our natural resources.

But this is just one example of how central government are directing a substantial amount of additional work to be done by Councils without the resourcing to support it. I can think of at least three other activity areas where additional responsibilities are being demanded of local authorities – not the least of which are the likely impacts of treaty settlements. At the same time we are being directed to hold rates while weathering the effects of local government and legislative reform. I welcome change which delivers better outcomes, but too much change all at once can be counter-productive. I just hope that the Ministers and Ministries that are driving the changes are talking to each other to make sure they don't trip us all up with too much change all at once.

If you have any views on this or any other issue, please contact me on [email protected] or ring me on 07 579-5150. Or you can check out my website at www.janenees.co.nz