Hinds (Hekeao) Catchment Limit Setting Process Social Assessment Report No. R14/83 ISBN 978-1-927314-50-0 (print) 978-1-927314-51-7 (web) 978-1-927314-52-4 (cd) Report prepared for Environment Canterbury by Taylor Baines and Associates August 2014 Report No. R14/83 ISBN 978-1-927314-50-0 (print) 978-1-927314-51-7 (web) 978-1-927314-52-4 (cd) 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 This report represents advice to Environment Canterbury and any views, conclusions or recommendations do not represent Council policy. The information in this report, together with any other information, may be used by the Council to formulate resource management policies, e.g., in the preparation or review of regional plans. Taylor Baines Hinds (Hekeao) Catchment Limit Setting Process Social Assessment Prepared by Nick Taylor, Wayne McClintock, Mike Mackay and Miria Goodwin1 Peer reviewed by Mark Fenton from Environmental and Behavioural Consultants Taylor Baines and Associates August 2014 1 Nick Taylor and Wayne McClintock from Taylor Baines and Associates, Mike Mackay from Lincoln University. Miria Goodwin from Environment Canterbury. 1 Taylor Baines Table of Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. i 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Objective of the assessment ................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Assessment area ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 ZC outcomes and technical indicators .................................................................................... 2 1.4 Data sources (baseline) ........................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Scenario assessment method ................................................................................................. 2 2 Social profile (current state) of Hinds (Hekeao)catchment ............................................................ 4 2.1 Introduction to the social profile ............................................................................................ 4 2.2 Economy and employment ..................................................................................................... 4 2.3 People and communities ........................................................................................................ 7 2.4 Recreation in Hinds Catchment .............................................................................................. 9 2.6 Stakeholder groups ............................................................................................................... 12 2.6 Summary and contextual issues ........................................................................................... 13 3 Assessment of scenarios ............................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Drinking water wells and domestic supplies now and in the future at least meet national drinking water standard for E.Coli and nitrate ................................................................................. 14 3.2 Maintain existing flood control to protect small communities and farmland ...................... 17 3.3 Economic growth in Hinds and Mayfield communities ........................................................ 18 3.4 Enhanced social wellbeing of rural communities ................................................................. 21 4 Assessment of the solutions package (ZIP Addendum) ................................................................ 30 4.1 Drinking water ....................................................................................................................... 31 4.2 Flood control ......................................................................................................................... 32 4.3 Economic growth and social wellbeing ................................................................................. 33 4.4 Recreation ............................................................................................................................. 33 4.5 Management of change ........................................................................................................ 35 5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 38 References ............................................................................................................................................ 39 List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................................... 41 Attachment 1 Map of assessment area ........................................................................................... 42 Attachment 2 Social outcomes, indicators and wellbeing elements ............................................... 43 2 Taylor Baines Executive Summary This strategic social assessment is part of the limits setting process for the Hinds (Hekeao) catchment in Ashburton District. The process under the Ashburton Zone Committee is setting nutrient, flow and water allocation limits for the Hinds catchment through a sub-regional plan of the Land and Water Regional Plan. The Zone Committee has established a number of outcomes that they expect a sub-regional plan to achieve, including social-economic outcomes alongside, ecological and cultural outcomes. The social assessment is part of number of technical work streams managed by Environment Canterbury to support the planning process. The social assessment is organised around a number of sub outcomes and technical indicators established by the Zone Committee. The interdisciplinary approach involved assessment of three primary scenarios by the social and other assessments: baseline, development and environmental scenarios. Information from the assessment was used in community workshops and Zone Committee meetings to develop a solutions package that eventually, with further deliberation, formed the basis for the Zip Addendum to the Land and Water Regional Plan. The assessment includes a social profile of the catchment based on boundaries for demographic and other social statistics. The profile captures the current state of the Hinds Catchment, utilising historical data on recent trends but not including any land use changes beyond those that have already taken place. The social profile was updated throughout the planning process, recording wherever possible the views of local people and those aspects of the catchment that they value. Key features of the catchment include its strong base of employment in the agricultural sector, with a mix of sectors including dairy farming, dairy support, arable and sheep and beef farming. This agricultural base was first made possible by extensive drainage systems in the lower catchment in particular over a century ago, and then, since the 1940s by the advent of large-scale irrigation made possible by water from the Rangitata River via the Rangitata Diversion Race and, more recently, by ground water irrigation. Growth in dairy farming is a particular feature of recent years. In the Hinds catchment (2011 baseline) there were 43, 870 ha of dairy and 10,820 ha of dairy support. This dairy farming takes place alongside 27,300 ha of arable farming and 55,600 ha of sheep and beef, with a very small amount of horticulture. The population of the District and the catchment, including the settlements of Hinds and Mayfield, is growing, and becoming increasingly ethnically diverse. At the District level the population is also ageing. Population growth is driven by growth in employment in agriculture, particularly in dairy farming. Hinds catchment experienced strong population growth of 27.2 per cent from 2001 to 2013, and only Mayfield village did not grow faster than the national average. The growth in population supports school rolls and other services. The Hinds River and associated lowland streams and drains are a local recreation resource and used to be a regional resource. Local people and fishers describe the river and some drains as having significant local recreational values for fishing and swimming in the past (middle of last century) and argue that this resource has declined significantly with longer periods of dry river bed and declining ecological conditions. The lower river retains few values as a trout fishery. The decline in recreational use of the river, streams and drains over recent years is very clear and cannot simply be i Taylor Baines attributed to fishers and other recreationists preferring other places, or to wider social changes such as changing attitudes to outdoor recreation. Drinking water in the Catchment is sourced mainly from shallow wells, with community schemes for the villages of Hinds and Mayfield, with the latter due for an upgrade as quality there is deemed to be poor. The trend towards a decline in drinking water quality of ground water is of concern to people and communities in the catchment, and