PROPOSED Plan Change 10: Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management
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Version 8.0 August 2017 PROPOSED Plan Change 10: Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management COUNCIL DECISIONS Report and Recommendations of the Hearing Commissioners August 2017 Bay of Plenty Regional Council PO Box 364 Whakatāne 3158 New Zealand The Bay of Plenty Regional Council appointed an Independent Hearing Panel to complete the hearing process for Proposed Plan Change 10 under section 34A of the Resource Management Act (“the Act”). The Independent Hearing Panel was given delegated authority under Sections 42A, 41B and 41C of the Act to hear and consider all submissions and evidence received on Proposed Plan Change 10, in their entirety and to make a report on those matters and recommend decisions for the Regional Direction and Delivery Committee to consider. The report and recommendations were considered by the Regional Direction and Delivery Committee on the 2 August 2017. A unanimous vote was received to accept the report, its appendices and the recommendations from the Independent Hearing Panel and to adopt these as Council’s decisions and resolved to notify its decisions on Proposed Plan Change 10 accordingly. The Regional Direction and Delivery Committee agreed to the following resolutions: That the Regional Direction and Delivery Committee under its delegated authority: 1 Receives the report, Proposed Plan Change 10: Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management - Recommendations received from the Independent Hearing Panel. 2 Receives the report and recommendations of the Independent Hearing Panel on Proposed Plan Change 10 to the Bay of Plenty Regional Water and Land Plan as set out in the document “Report and Recommendations of the Hearing Commissioners” and Appendices 1 to 7. 3 Accepts the recommendations of the Independent Hearing Panel on Proposed Plan Change 10 to the Bay of Plenty Regional Water and Land Plan as set out in the document “Report and Recommendations of the Hearing Commissioners” and Appendices 1 to 7 as Council’s decisions on submissions on Proposed Plan Change 10 Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management under clause 10(1) of Schedule 1 to the Resource Management Act 1991. 4 Approves public notification of its decisions on submissions on Proposed Plan Change 10 Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management to the Bay of Plenty Regional Water and Land Plan in accordance with clauses 10 and 11 of Schedule 1 to the Resource Management Act 1991. 5 Notes that the requirements of 32AA(1)(d)(ii) of the Resource Management Act 1991 are fulfilled by the Hearing Panel report and that no separate 32AA report is therefore required. 6 Notes that on and from the date the decisions are publicly notified, Proposed Plan Change 10 is amended in accordance with the decisions. 7 Delegates to the Group Manager Strategy and Science to make any required minor corrections and formatting under clause 16(2) Schedule 1 of the Resource Management Act 1991. Tahana/Thurston CARRIED The attached report entitled Report and Recommendations of the Hearing Commissioners dated 2 August 2017 and Appendices 1 to 7 are therefore the decisions of the Council on Proposed Plan Change 10 under clause 10 of Schedule 1 of the Act and are notified as such under clause 10 and 11. As a result of Council’s decision, Appendix 8 has been included to identify changes made to Proposed Plan Change 10 from notification on 29 February 2016. IN THE MATTER OF the Resource Management Act 1991 AND IN THE MATTER OF proposed Plan Change 10 to the Bay of Plenty Regional Land and Water Plan Hearing Commissioners: Retired Judge Gordon Whiting, Chair Dr Brent Cowie Ms Gina Sweetman Mr Rauru Kirikiri Date: 30 June 2017 REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE HEARING COMMISSIONERS Table of Contents Part 1 – Introduction and background ....................................................................................... 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 Lake Rotorua ........................................................................................................................... 8 Lake Rotorua catchment ....................................................................................................... 10 Water quality of the lake ...................................................................................................... 11 Achieving and maintaining the TLI .................................................................................... 12 Land use in the catchment ................................................................................................... 14 Dairy farming .................................................................................................................... 14 Drystock farming ............................................................................................................... 15 Deer farming ..................................................................................................................... 15 Māori land ......................................................................................................................... 15 Forestry ............................................................................................................................. 16 Small properties less than 40ha........................................................................................ 16 Control of nutrients .............................................................................................................. 17 PC10 ...................................................................................................................................... 18 Part II – Development of and extant provisions of PC10 .......................................................... 20 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 20 Focus on nitrogen ................................................................................................................. 21 Planning context out of which PC10 developed ................................................................... 23 Regulatory genesis of PC10 .................................................................................................. 25 The development process of PC10 ....................................................................................... 26 The Oturoa agreement ..................................................................................................... 27 The Stakeholder Advisory Group (StAG) ........................................................................... 28 The RPS and StAG principles ............................................................................................. 29 The Integrated Framework ............................................................................................... 30 The conceptual methodologies that underlie PC10 ............................................................. 36 Sustainable lake load ........................................................................................................ 36 Timeframe......................................................................................................................... 36 The TLI ............................................................................................................................... 36 OVERSEER® ........................................................................................................................ 36 Allocation methodology – benchmarking, NDAs and starting points .............................. 38 Use of Nutrient Management Plans ................................................................................. 40 Transfer of nutrient discharge allocations (NDA’s) .......................................................... 41 2 General comment on the underlying concepts/methodologies ...................................... 41 The provisions of Plan Change 10 (Version 7): Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management ......... 43 The Introduction ............................................................................................................... 43 The objectives ................................................................................................................... 44 Policies .............................................................................................................................. 45 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 49 Rules.................................................................................................................................. 50 Definitions ......................................................................................................................... 53 Schedules .......................................................................................................................... 53 General comments ........................................................................................................... 54 Part III – The legal and statutory context ................................................................................. 55 No presumption .................................................................................................................... 56 Validity of submissions – scope ............................................................................................ 57 Submissions that are not