2. Technical Alliance Technical Leaders Group and Technical Support Group
Confirmed in June 2014
Seven person TLG; approx. 80 experts on TSG
Purpose: provide environmental, economic, cultural and social information about the Waikato and Waipa rivers and the effects of different land management scenarios
Scope: the four contaminants N, P, sediment, microbes

3. Technical Overview Four contaminants – why important?
Policy cycle and the role of technical input
Water quality state and trends
Sources of contaminants and how to mitigate
What next for the Technical Alliance

4. Why the four contaminants?
Relevance
Pathogens (E. coli)
Human health: safe swimming, waka ama, kai gathering, boating, angling etc
Cultural acceptability (measure of faecal pollution)
Livestock health: drinking water
Domestic & industrial use: treatment needs
Sediment:
Suspended sediment
Water clarity
Turbidity
Aesthetics, safe swimming, waka ama, kai gathering, boating, angling
Cultural acceptability
Ecosystem health (light, primary production, visual feeders - fish, birds)
Sedimentation: drainage/flooding, dam volume
Nutrients:
Nitrogen (TN, Nitrate, DIN) and Phosphorus (TP, DRP)
Promotes plant growth – e.g., nuisance algal blooms with aesthetic, toxic (cyanobacteria) and ecosystem health impacts
Nitrogen toxicity:
Ammonium & nitrate
Toxic to aquatic life

5. Technical Overview Four contaminants – why important?
Policy cycle and the role of technical input
Water quality state and trends
Sources of contaminants and how to mitigate
What next for the Technical Alliance

6. The policy cycle and technical input
Healthy Rivers Policy Process
CSG Focus Statement/Vision & Strategy
e.g., safe to swim, take food, provide well being
May be ‘enriched’ narrative below that
Desired Values
Determining water quality levels (N, P, Sed., bacteria) consistent with Desired Values
Scenario Analysis – looking at future options for limiting point and non-point losses from land to ensure water quality is consistent with desired Values
Integrated assessment across Values to provide CSG with social, economic, cultural & ecological analysis
CSG
deliberations
CSG outcomes
Assess options against Values & risk
Consensus?
Seek further scenarios?
TLG advises, using:
National objectives
Existing information
Experts input
TLG, using experts for:
Predictive modelling
Non-market valuation studies

7. Vision & Strategy: Te Ture Whaimana
Te Ture Whaimana included in 2009 Deed of Settlement
Prevails over other legislation, including the National Policy Statement
Te Ture Whaimana requires, amongst other things, that:
The Waikato River and its tributaries are restored and protected
Is suitable for swimming over its entire length
Should not be required to absorb further degradation
The avoidance of cumulative adverse effects
Provides important guidance to the work of the TLG

8. The policy cycle and technical input
Healthy Rivers Policy Process
CSG Focus Statement/Vision & Strategy
e.g., safe to swim, take food, provide well being
May be ‘enriched’ narrative below that
Desired Values
Determining water quality levels (N, P, Sed., bacteria) consistent with Desired Values
Scenario Analysis – looking at future options for limiting point and non-point losses from land to ensure water quality is consistent with desired Values
Integrated assessment across Values to provide CSG with social, economic, cultural & ecological analysis
CSG
deliberations
CSG outcomes
Assess options against Values & risk
Consensus?
Seek further scenarios?
TLG advises, using:
National objectives
Existing information
Experts input
TLG, using experts for:
Predictive modelling
Non-market valuation studies

9. Illustration of stepping through the process
Value: Swimmable
Attribute: Bacteria (E.coli/100ml)
Attribute Levels: Swimmable (<540); Not swimmable (>540)
Current State: % sites in following categories
Main-stem sites of:
Swimmable
Not swimmable
Upper Waikato
100% 0%
Waipa
Lower Waikato
20%
80%
Scenario Analysis: Assess options for reducing faecal bacteria input to meet swimmable level – wastewater treatment, denying stock access to streams, feed pads, etc.
Provide options analysis to CSG for their deliberations

10. Technical Overview Four contaminants – why important?
Policy cycle and the role of technical input
Water quality state and trends
Sources of contaminants and how to mitigate
What next for the Technical Alliance

11. State and Trends in Water Quality
State – what is the contaminant concentration and is it above or below a guideline or ‘bottom line’?
Trend – is it improving, stable or deteriorating?

12. Water quality monitoring network
Quality assured and reliable data
Sampled regularly since 1992
Over 50 sites in Waikato/Waipa
Allows ‘time and space’ analysis

13. Water quality trends at Waikato & Waipa River sites, 1993-2012
Improving  Stable  Deteriorating

14. State: water clarity from Taupo to Port Waikato

15. State: Waikato River (main-stem) bacteria
Not-swimmable
540 cfu/100 ml
Swimmable

16. State: Tributaries and Waipa bacteria

17. State: Lake algae (chlorophyll a)
mg m-3 D
National Bottom Line

18. State: Lake nitrogen
Total N (mg m-3) D
National Bottom Line

19. Summary of Water Quality
Upper Waikato main-stem high water quality due to purity of water from Lake Taupo
Waipa and Lower Waikato main-stem often low water quality
Tributary streams often have low water quality
Lowland lakes have very low water quality

20. Technical Overview Four contaminants – why important?
Policy cycle and the role of technical input
Water quality state and trends
Sources of contaminants and how to mitigate
What next for the Technical Alliance

21. Sources of N and P NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS
This demonstrates the contribution of different land use to N entering streams in the Waikato.
Niwa data

22. How do contaminants move from land to water?
P fertiliser
P to stream P
Rock mineral P
N in urine
N as gas
Leached N
Atmospheric N
N fixation/N fertiliser N
slips & soil erosion
bank & gully
erosion
Runoff
livestock excreta
sediment
bugs

23. Some tools in the mitigation toolbox
Point source treatment enhancements
Farm nutrient management
budgets, timing, targeting
Target farm hotspots (80/20 rule) e.g.
wintering pads/herd shelters
dairy effluent treatment, storage and irrigation
erosion control tree planting
raceway/track runoff managed
fence seeps and wetlands
grass filters in swales
riparian setbacks
Match land use to capability
trees vs livestock vs fodder crops
livestock type/system

24. Mitigations work (…to varying levels)
For example:
Nitrate removal in a small protected Whatawhata
In Out

25. Technical Overview Four contaminants – why important?
Policy cycle and the role of technical input
Water quality state and trends
Sources of contaminants and how to mitigate
What next for the Technical Alliance

26. What next for the Technical Alliance?
Much is known, but more targeted work required on:
Maatauranga Maori related to the effects of the four contaminants
Developing water quality states consistent with the Values
Groundwater age and nitrogen fate
Economic analyses of future scenarios (farm-scale to regional)
Social and cultural impact assessment of future scenarios