100% Pure

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, October 31st, 2016 - 12 comments
Categories: sustainability, water - Tags: , , ,

A selection of tweets from this morning:

12 comments on “100% Pure ”

  1. Rosemary McDonald 1

    A rare prosecution by a Regional Council….

    http://m.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11736087

    “Two Northland logging contractors and an individual have been ordered to pay more than $68,000 in fines and reparation after they admitted carrying out earthworks in a wetland without consent.

    Woodbank Trading, Sunnex Harvesting and Michael Lance Bartlett appeared in the Environment Court in Whangarei this week for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to three charges of contravening the Resource Management Act (RMA).

    The charges were laid by the Northland Regional Council.

    Breaches of the RMA came to light after the Ngawha Geothermal Plant, situated upstream of the Northland College block, notified NRC of an anomaly in water quality it suspected was due to logging operations.

    The NRC was not aware until investigations began that part of the area Woodbank Trading and Sunnex Harvesting were working on qualified as significant indigenous wetlands.

    The logging operations resulted in discharge of sediment and vegetation directly into unnamed tributaries of the Taikawhena Stream and in the Taikawhena Wetlands.”

    (A pity the Northland Regional Council adopts a hands off approach to stock effluent contamination.)

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/rural/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503445&objectid=11728217

    “The Northland Regional Council (NRC) draft regional plan permits stock access to rivers, lakes and wetlands so long as the animals don’t discharge dung or urine which floats or causes scum or odour.”

    • Sacha 1.1

      Cows are programmed to piss and poo when standing in water. Only answer is keeping them out. Water quality regulators should do their bloody jobs.

      • Rosemary McDonald 1.1.1

        “….should do their bloody jobs.”

        What a stunningly novel idea!

        (Forgive the sarcasm Sacha, certainly not directed at yourself…it’s been one of those years 😉 )

      • Cinny 1.1.2

        YES

  2. greg 3

    there is little hope for the rivers or even a clean up while national are is power the farming lobby have full control

  3. greg 4

    there is little hope for the rivers or even a clean up while national are in power the farming lobby have full control

    • tc 4.1

      Unless Uncle Sam or a more beneficial backer wants it done then you’d see national bend over backwards to clean them up.

      Farmers always vote national and they’re just one of many enablers behind this regime, there’s plenty financially more valuable to national though.

  4. tory 5

    ‘there is little hope for the rivers or even a clean up while national are in power the farming lobby have full control’

    Its not a case of who is in power but why the regulators are not taking action (or what action they actually take).

    As an example, the ‘Sustainable Dairying Accord’ reports that 96% of the waterways on NZ dairy farms are excluded from dairy cattle:

    http://www.dairynz.co.nz/environment/in-your-region/sustainable-dairying-water-accord/

    If effluent is discharged into a stream (a.k.a Southland, as reported) then the local organisation, Environment Southland, needs to take action (in fact readers here have a direct line to an ES councillor Robert Guyton who also posts on TS and perhaps he can report on how effective ES is at prosecutions etc).

  5. ropata 6

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGf4maDU7Ps

    Hot Air documentary, directed by Alister Barry

    The politics of climate change in New Zealand. In precise, documented detail we see how, over twenty years, National and Labour government ministers, supported by advisers and scientists, presented their Cabinet colleagues with proposals for nation-wide action. With similar clarity, we see how big business recruited climate change deniers and spin doctors to manipulate public opinion, frighten politicians and remove climate change from voters’ attention and governments’ agendas. As the film takes us behind the scenes we begin to see exactly why and how we are allowing corporations and their executives to subvert democracy.

    Shane Ardern’s tractor stunt is just another example in a long list of crimes against the environment

  6. Cinny 7

    Waiting for the no trout fishing for 3 months in the motueka river due to 1080 drops, just like last time.

    http://www.fishandgame.org.nz/newsitem/cawthron-institute-1080-report

  7. Grant Henderson 8

    Dominion Post, 21 Nov 2006:

    “A Dannevirke farmer who diverted a river has been fined
    $80,000.

    The prosecution is the third this year by Horizons and the penalty is the biggest pursued.”

    Ten years on and we get the same behaviour.

    Stuff, 28 Oct 2016: “Southland farmer fined $36,000 for Oreti river changes.”