Slow death of a dirty brown river

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RIVERDANCE: The frolicking girls shown in the Tui ad are a long way from reality. If the girls really danced in the Mangatainoka River, with pollutants that include farm run-off, they would get sick.

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It's like an open drain. More than 100,000 cubic metres of treated waste is poured into the dirty Manawatu River each day.

It is the cheap option, with economics winning over the environment, activists say.

Pollution is rife as sediment, runoff and treated waste chug into the waterways and change the habitats of native fish.

The river is so murky that whitebait are disappearing. Fishermen tell of the worst season in decades and of whitebait that are no longer white.

"It's a really bad situation," Massey University ecologist Mike Joy says.

"Everyone in Palmy is so used to having a brown river, they think it's normal. They don't realise what it actually means is that it's killing the river."

But the Manawatu River is a symptom of a national problem. Water quality in lowland and urban rivers is growing worse - the Tukituki River in Hawke's Bay has been dogged by an algae outbreak and parts of the Waikato River are deemed unsafe for stock to drink from.

A recent report by Forest and Bird, and Fish and Game said waterways were more polluted than five years ago, despite efforts to improve their quality.

An intensifying agriculture sector - with rising livestock and fertiliser use - and continued waste discharge into rivers threatens New Zealand's clean, green image.

The Manawatu is among the worst-polluted. Spanning 170 kilometres, it runs through eroding hill country that drops sediment into it.

Runoff from farmland, which includes irrigation water and cow dung, also spills into it. Mixed with wastewater discharge, this adds to the brown tinge.

The nitrogen from runoff and phosphorus from sewage cause imbalances, resulting in slimy bacterial growth and algae, and altering the natural habitat for native fish.

Dr Joy says Horizons Regional Council had granted 198 resource consents to discharge into the river. "So there's 198 big pipes pouring waste into the Manawatu."

The council disagrees, saying the figure is now between 60 and 70, including 11 sewerage plants and four freezing works.

Palmerston North City Council is the biggest user, with consent to discharge 42,000 cubic metres of treated waste daily. Other big users are Fonterra, New Zealand Pharmaceuticals and Tui Brewery.

The big users are often the ones who fall short of the regulations, as the treatment of waste consistently fails to meet standards.

Dr Joy says there is a major flaw in the picture-perfect images shown in television advertisements of Tui girls frolicking in the river near the brewery in the small Tararua town of Mangatainoka.

If the girls really danced in the Mangatainoka River, which feeds into the Manawatu, they would get sick.

The brewery is downstream of Pahiatua's sewage system and has itself regularly breached its discharge consent conditions, he says.

In 2006, Manawatu residents took to the streets to protest at what they claimed was council-endorsed pollution.

Dairy giant Fonterra had been given resource consent to dump 8500 cubic metres of waste into the river each day between May and October, for 15 years.

Citizen group Waitarere Environmental Care Association took them to the Environment Court and, at mediation, Fonterra agreed to reduce it to 6000.

Since then the furore has dimmed, with association secretary Christina Paton believing apathy is one of the biggest problems. The river is an open drain, she says. "I wouldn't eat anything that swims in this river."

Whitebaiters have been bemoaning the lack of catches and there have been reports that some have fallen ill. "Whitebait are not white - something is happening to them," she says.

Dr Joy says 75 per cent of the whitebait habitats in Manawatu and Horowhenua had been overtaken by pollution and the whitebait have disappeared.

He believes land-based effluent disposal options are better than discharging into the river. But, for as long as companies aim to maximise profits, dumping in the already "really sick" river is the cheapest option.

"It's only because it's convenient, because we have this river running past the back door, we can dump our waste in it."

Horizons Regional Council spokesman Greg Carlyon says land-based disposal options are being looked at in Shannon and Foxton as ways of reducing discharges into the river.

The council insists it is taking a tough line on those discharging or taking water, and has 17 prosecutions underway, including ones against the Tararua and Horowhenua district councils.

A dairy farm inspection programme that began six weeks ago, visiting 140 farms in the first week, found non-compliance rates were 35 per cent. But Mr Carlyon estimates the rate has now dropped to 15 per cent. The council plans to visit each of the 970 farms in the region.

Popular swimming spots in the river have been monitored and are safe, he says. However, people should not have to wonder whether it is safe to swim.

"It is not just a horror story for the Manawatu, it's New Zealand and the way we operate ... we need to discuss if this is still appropriate and if alternatives may be viable."

Councils are desperate for government direction about the problem, he says.

Environment Minister Trevor Mallard has called for the worst farm polluters to be jailed and has promised to clean up rivers to ensure they are all safe for swimming within a generation.

Guidance will be given with a proposed policy for freshwater management.