Report for the Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee Reporting Progress in Implementing the Selwyn Waihora ZIP Addendum
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CANTERBURY REGIONAL COUNCIL Kaunihera Taiao ki Waitaha Report for the Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee Reporting progress in implementing the Selwyn Waihora ZIP Addendum Dec 2020 Name Date Prepared by: Environment Canterbury staff November 2019 Reviewed by: Environment Canterbury December 2019 Senior Management External review by: David Painter, DPC Ltd January- October 2020 Approved by: Dr Tim Davie, Director of December 2020 Science at Environment Canterbury Note: This report was written over a 1-year time period so the information and data refer to a mix of dates between November 2019 and December 2020. Report No. R20/63 PU1C/8756 978-1-99-002733-8 Print 978-1-99-002734-5 Web December 2020 200 Tuam Street PO Box 345 Christchurch 8140 Phone (03) 365 3828 Fax (03) 365 3194 75 Church Street PO Box 550 Timaru 7940 Phone (03) 687 7800 Fax (03) 687 7808 Website: www.ecan.govt.nz Customer Services Phone 0800 324 636 Reporting progress in implementing the Selwyn Waihora ZIP Addendum Executive summary Background: The Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS), endorsed by the Mayoral Forum in 2009, sets out a vision and targets for improved water management throughout Canterbury. Ten Zone Committees were set up to help implement the CWMS in their own zone. The Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee was established in October 2010. Importantly, the first agreements for co-governance of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere were signed in 2011 and 2012 between the Te Waihora Management Board and Environment Canterbury, providing a unique context for the Selwyn Waihora Zone. The committee worked with the community to identify desired outcomes for water management and wrote recommendations for how to achieve them in its Zone Implementation Programme (ZIP, in December 2011) and its ZIP Addendum (2013). The committee recommended a Solutions Package as ‘a significant first step’, aiming to improve cultural and environmental outcomes in the zone while maintaining farm viability and economic growth. Since the ZIP Addendum was written, the policy and planning context has changed significantly. The question: The 2019 Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee asked for a report collating information about progress towards implementing their ZIP Addendum. The committee will use this to assess progress within the zone, and to identify their priorities for the next few years. What we did: Environment Canterbury, with assistance from other organisations, has collated and documented existing information and data about projects, actions, and outcomes that form part of the Solutions Package for the Selwyn Waihora Zone. No new investigations or studies were undertaken, and the report is a non-glossy stocktake primarily for the Zone Committee. The report is not an efficiency and effectiveness review of the Plan, nor does it provide advice on what more needs to be done. What we found: • This progress report takes its audience one more step along the CWMS maturity journey. It is for one of ten Zone Committees within a strategy that is multi-generational with ten CWMS target areas. Since the ZIP Addendum was written in 2013, contextual changes have included a regionally relevant Plan Change (PC5), three changes to the NPS for Freshwater Management, new 2025 CWMS targets, and the current round of Essential Freshwater Government objectives. It has been 6 years since the ZIP Addendum was drafted and nearly 7 years since the Selwyn Te Waihora section of the Land and Water Regional Plan was notified (February 2014). • The Selwyn Waihora sub-regional chapter of the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan incorporated a large proportion of the recommendations in the ZIP Addendum. These recommendations are now rules and are being implemented and monitored by the Regional Council. Some of the rules are yet to come into effect. • There is work underway across all the ‘pathways’ identified in the ZIP Addendum, though some of these projects have only just begun. Environmental monitoring is showing outcomes that remain, as predicted, of concern, especially for Te Waihora, and for nitrogen concentrations in the central and lower catchment. • There remain some information gaps including the extent and effectiveness of riparian margins within the zone, current catchment Nitrogen loads, in-depth information on what changes farmers are making as a result of their Farm Environment Plans, information on how well farm viability is maintained and economic impact of changes, and a full picture of how much funding has been spent and an analysis of where else it is needed and where it might come from. What does it mean? The Zone Committee will use the information in this report to decide what it means for progress and to identify priorities for their work programmes in the next 1-3 years. There will be varying opinions about the extent, speed and coordination of progress in the six years since the ZIP Addendum was written. The ‘what does it all mean’ part of the report remains a work in progress and will be done a) by the Zone Environment Canterbury Technical Report i Report title Committee and key agencies working within the zone holding strategic conversations about progress and b) over the next few years as the Zone Committee, community and agencies work together to identify and take up opportunities for next steps. How we have considered climate change: The Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee has discussed climate change since the committee was first established – at first learning about its impact on water through presentations, then through incorporation of the latest climate information in the modelling done for the ZIP Addendum, and more recently through semi-regular presentations to the Zone Committee. The Zone Committee’s 2018-19 Waikirikiri Working Group took a close look at climate change in their work to identify what a healthy Waikirikiri would look like and in their road-map and recommendations to get there. Within this report, there is a specific section (3.4.7) that considers the impact of climate change on water quantity. ii Environment Canterbury Technical Report Reporting progress in implementing the Selwyn Waihora ZIP Addendum Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 8 1.1 CWMS context ............................................................................................................... 8 1.1.1 The CWMS Targets .......................................................................................... 8 1.1.2 The Selwyn Waihora Zone Committee and its Implementation Programmes ...................................................................................................... 9 1.2 The purpose of this report ............................................................................................ 10 1.3 Structure of the report .................................................................................................. 11 2 Implementation and Review ........................................................................ 13 2.1 ZIP Addendum context ................................................................................................ 13 2.2 Selwyn-Te Waihora Plan Context ................................................................................ 13 2.3 Progress on implementation and review of progress .................................................. 13 3 Water quantity — stream flows, water takes and use ............................... 15 3.1 ZIP Addendum context ................................................................................................ 15 3.2 Selwyn Te Waihora Plan context ................................................................................. 16 3.3 High level summary of findings: water quantity ........................................................... 16 3.4 Progress on managing river and stream flows, water allocation and use ................... 17 3.4.1 Water allocation and abstraction..................................................................... 17 3.4.2 The water balance — recharge, abstraction and stream flows ...................... 18 3.4.3 Waikirikiri / Selwyn River flows at Whitecliffs and Coes Ford ......................... 19 3.4.4 Central Plains Water — alpine water as part of the solution to water quantity ............................................................................................................ 21 3.4.5 Near-river recharge and targeted stream augmentation ................................ 22 3.4.6 Damming and water storage ........................................................................... 24 3.4.7 Impacts of climate change on water quantity .................................................. 24 4 Improving water quality through nutrient management, farming practices, and rules ..................................................................................... 26 4.1 ZIP Addendum context ................................................................................................ 26 4.2 Selwyn Te Waihora Plan context ................................................................................. 28 4.3 High-level summary of findings: improving water quality through nutrient management, farming practices and rules .................................................................. 28 4.4 Progress on actions to improve water quality .............................................................. 29 4.4.1 Farming-related activities to manage nutrient and microbial losses ..............