Water Quality

  1. Is Lake Taupo seriously threatened?

    Scientists agree that Lake Taupo is under threat from increasing nitrogen leaching from land uses in the catchment. To just maintain the lake's current water quality, the amount of nitrogen coming from farmland and urban areas needs to be reduced by 20 per cent.

  2. Might the water quality get worse before it gets better?

    Yes.

  3. What is The Lake Taupo Protection Trust?

    The Lake Taupo Protection Trust (the Trust) has six trustees who have the task of reducing the manageable nitrogen within the catchment by 20%. The Trust reports to the Lake Taupo Protection Project Joint Committee.

  4. What is causing the nitrogen problem?

    The leakage of nitrogen from the permeable pumice land in the Lake Taupo catchment, mainly as a result of animal urine from grazing, with the biggest impact coming from female cattle, but also from human wastewater.

  5. What action is being taken to protect the water quality of Lake Taupo?

    Waikato Regional Council has proposed new policy and rules to manage land use in the catchment, with some farming practices controlled or requiring consents. It also contains tighter controls for new urban development in the Lake Taupo catchment.
    The Lake Taupo Protection Trust is tasked with the permanent removal of 20% of manageable Nitrogen from entering Lake Taupo and will achieve this through land use change to lower nitrogen leaching land uses.

  6. How will this impact on people in the Taupo basin?

    The new rules that Waikato Regional Council has proposed will impact people in the catchment in several ways:

    • Limits on the annual average amount of nitrogen that can be leached from rural land use activities - all farming will require resource consents
    • Limits on the amount of nitrogen that can be leached from new wastewater discharges (on-site or community systems)
    • A high standard of nitrogen removal will be needed from wastewater systems near to the lakeshore
    • All of the above will have a social and economic impact on all land owners in the catchment.

    All farms operating above standards set for permitted activity rules within the Lake Taupo catchment are required to be benchmarked. Waikato Regional Council is responsible for undertaking the benchmarking process and their staff are available to assist farmers with this process. On completion of the benchmarking process each farm will have a nitrogen discharge allowance (NDA) which places a cap on how much nitrogen can be leached from the land. Waikato Regional Council will ensure farmers stay within their nitrogen cap.

  7. How are nitrogen limits for farmers established?

    Waikato Regional Council evaluates (benchmarks) each property based on detailed farming information for the property over the years 2001 - 2005 and calculates a nitrogen discharge allowance using the Overseer model. Effectively this discharge becomes a cap on the amount of nitrogen that is consented to be leached from the land.