Sage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12027. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.EUGENIE SAGE (Green)to theMinister for the Environment: What percentage of sites identified as a river in theSuitability for Swimming indicator report released yesterday were categorised as “Very Good” or “Good” and therefore were safe for swimming?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment):I do not accept the member’s assertion that only rivers classified as very good or good are safe for swimming. The report takes a precautionary approach to any potential health risks and the report shows that most sites are safe for swimming most of the time with fair and poor sites also suitable at most times that people will be using them. However to respond to the member’s question of the sites monitored and specifically identified as a river 19 percent are rated as very good or good. Across all sites measured 47 percent are classified as good or very good. It should be noted that the specific monitoring sites are not a representative sample. They tend to be sites that councils manage because there is a known risk so affected sites are likely to be overrepresented.Eugenie Sage: When 61 percent of monitored sites on New Zealand rivers are unsafe for swimming and nitrate concentrations at a quarter of the river sites have increasedover the 10 years from 2000 to 2010 how can the Minister conclude that “water quality is generally improving.” as she did yesterday?Hon AMY ADAMS: Very simply because the two reports that the member has referred to—Suitability for Swimming and the river condition report—show that in the vast majority of rivers the sites are either stable or improving against all the nutrients we manage. Ninety percent of those rivers are stable or improving for four of the five measures recorded. For nitrates there are 25 percent that are deteriorating but there are also a number that are significantly improving. I think the relevant points are that for the E. coli measure 92 percent of our rivers are stable or improving and that for the nitrate level 99 percent of our rivers are below the nitrate level at which significant ecological impact could be expected. Our water quality is very good but we need to do better still.Eugenie Sage: When her Government’s National Policy Statement forFreshwater Management gives councils until December 2030 to establish contaminant limits in waterways and few councils have done so does she accept that New Zealanders are watching the rivers that they want to swim in get worse rather than better?Hon AMY ADAMS: I think the relevant point there is that this is a Government that has actually introduced a national policy statement on fresh water for the first time requiring councils to ensure that all water bodies are maintained or improved something the Labour Government backed up by the Greens failed to do in 9 years and something that that member in her previous profession failed to do in Canterbury for many more years. This is a Government that has spent five times what the previous Government did in cleaning up waterways. This is a Government that has launched a programme of water reform which will be absolutely transformative in this country. I think members on the Opposition benches should be ashamed of their record in this area.Eugenie Sage: Is the Minister saying that New Zealanders just have to accept that in over 40 percent of the monitored river sites—[Interruption ]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am having trouble hearing the question. Would the member please start again.Eugenie Sage: Is the Minister saying that New Zealanders just have to accept that in 40 percent of the monitored river sites there is E. coli which is an indicator of animal faeces and that it is at levels that her own ministry describes as having a significant risk of causing high levels of minor illness? Is the Minister saying we just have to accept that?Hon AMY ADAMS: No. What I am saying is that the figures show that 92 percent of our rivers have stable or improving E. coli numbers which I think is a very good thing. Yes we do absolutely want to continue to target the remaining 8 percent but I would draw the member’s attention to the part of the report on page 4 that makes the point that rivers and streams in or downstream of urban areas are those that have the highest concentrations of nutrients and bacteria and the lowestmacroinvertebrate health. Those members may wish to remember that when they continue their attack on New Zealand’s biggest industries.