Following a day of drinking water testing Greenpeace and the Federation of Freshwater Anglers say Ashburton region is showing unacceptable high rates of nitrate contamination in drinking water.
Greenpeace recently held a free drop in water testing in Ashburton, drawing concerned bore owners from across the district with 101 samples tested.
Initial analysis showed 61% of the samples had over 5 milligrams per liter of nitrate contamination drinking water. Studies have shown that 5 milligrams per liter of nitric contamination the risk of premature birth increases by almost half.
Greenpeace senior campaigner Steve Abel said the testing was seen by locals as a valuable service. Everyone should be able to trust that their drinking water is safe to drink but many of the people we've talked to today have been shocked and worried at the amount of nitrate in their drinking water, Abel said.
Our results showed bold water around the Ashburton region slowed with nitrate contamination. It's no surprise that areas with high nitrate levels are the same areas that have a lot of intensive dairying.
The paddocks around Ashburton that cramp of cows. We know that the synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and cow euro are the main causes of rising nitrate contamination and drinking water.
It's not like you can just go without water it's a fundamental to life how do we cut the nitrate? We need local and regional councils as well as the government to step up and regulate the dairy industry by phasing out synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and lowering stocking rates.
Greenpeace ran the testing in conjunction with the Federation of Freshwater Anglers, whose spokesperson Peter Trolove said the results were add acceptably high for humans and for freshwater animals. Do you like from and ecological perspective the same ground would have feeds the lowland springs weird truck can no longer reproduce due to nitrate toxicity Trolove said.
The resource management act states that the Regional Council shall maintain or enhance their regions freshwater quality quantity and the ecosystems. Gone but what we've seen is that they haven't improved the quantity. They’ve allowed dairying operations to drain the rivers and aquifers dry and this testing shows they're certainly haven't improved the quality of water and they are not meeting their statutory obligations Greenpeace is calling on the government to take a precautionary approach and other health limit of nitrates water to 0.87 milligrams per liter in line with international research. The organizations have also been running tests days and Temuka winter and Riversdale.
