{"id":16726,"date":"2021-07-10T15:58:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T03:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?p=16726"},"modified":"2024-07-12T11:59:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T23:59:57","slug":"testing-shows-ashburton-is-loaded-with-nitrate-contamination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/testing-shows-ashburton-is-loaded-with-nitrate-contamination\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing shows Ashburton is \u201cloaded with nitrate contamination\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Following a day of drinking water testing, Greenpeace and the Federation of Freshwater Anglers say the Ashburton region is showing unacceptably high rates of nitrate contamination in drinking water.<\/p>\n\n<p>Greenpeace today held free drop-in water testing in Ashburton, drawing concerned bore owners from across the district, with 101 samples tested. Preliminary analysis showed 61% of the samples had over 5mg\/L of nitrate contamination. Ten samples were over the current health limit of 11.3mg\/L.<\/p>\n\n<p>A 2018 scientific study showed a significant increase in risk of bowel cancer at as low as 0.87mg\/L of nitrate contamination in drinking water. Studies have shown that at 5mg\/L of nitrate contamination, the risk of premature birth increases by almost half.<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/petition.act.greenpeace.org.nz\/agriculture-nitratelimits\">Greenpeace is calling on the Government to take a precautionary approach and lower the health limit of nitrate in water to 0.87mg\/L, in line with international research.<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p>Greenpeace senior campaigner Steve Abel says the testing is seen by locals as a valuable service. People are concerned to know what their nitrate levels are and to know the risks associated with nitrate in water.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone should be able to trust that their drinking water is safe to drink, but many of the people we\u2019ve talked to today have been shocked and worried at the amount of nitrate in their drinking water.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cOur results today show bore water around the Ashburton region is loaded with nitrate contamination. It\u2019s no surprise that areas with high nitrate levels are the same areas that have a lot of intensive dairying.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe paddocks around Ashburton are crammed with cows. We know that synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and cow urine are the main causes of rising nitrate contamination in drinking water,\u201d says Abel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like you can just go without water &#8211; it\u2019s 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 fertiliser and lowering stocking rates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Greenpeace ran the testing in conjunction with the Federation of Freshwater Anglers, whose spokesperson Peter Trolove says the results were unacceptably high from a public health perspective.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cFrom an ecological perspective, this same groundwater feeds the lowland springs, where trout can no longer reproduce due to nitrate toxicity,\u201d says Trolove.<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cThe Resource Management Act states that regional councils shall maintain or enhance their region\u2019s freshwater quality, quantity and ecosystems. But what we\u2019ve seen is that they haven\u2019t improved the quantity &#8211; they\u2019ve allowed dairying operations to drain the rivers and aquifers dry &#8211; and this testing shows they certainly haven\u2019t improved the quality of water, and they\u2019re not meeting their statutory accountabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>Greenpeace and the Federation of Freshwater Anglers are doing a second day of testing tomorrow, Sunday 11th July, at the Alpine Energy Community Centre in Temuka.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p>The organisations are also running testing days in Southland on 17th July in Winton and 18th July in Riversdale.<\/p>\n\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n\t\t\t<section\n\t\t\tclass=\"boxout post-15662 \"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Image\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"cover-card-overlay\"\n\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/petition\/petition-get-nitrates-out-of-our-drinking-water\/\" \n\t\t\t><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/02\/6976888c-jana-sabeth-7b1w1mcwekw-unsplash.jpg 1402w\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(min-width: 1000px) 358px, (min-width: 780px) 313px, 88px\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\talt=\"\" title=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\/>\n            \t\t\t<div class=\"boxout-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"boxout-heading medium\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-action=\"Title\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/petition\/petition-get-nitrates-out-of-our-drinking-water\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPETITION: Get nitrates out of our drinking water\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"boxout-excerpt\">Call on the Government to lower the limit for nitrates in drinking water to safe levels <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t                                    <a\n                        class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                        data-ga-category=\"Take Action Boxout\"\n                        data-ga-action=\"Call to Action\"\n                        data-ga-label=\"n\/a\"\n                        href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/petition\/petition-get-nitrates-out-of-our-drinking-water\/\"\n                        \n                    >\n                        Take Action\n                    <\/a>\n                \t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a day of drinking water testing, Greenpeace and the Federation of Freshwater Anglers say the Ashburton region is showing unacceptably high rates of nitrate contamination in drinking water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":16727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19,23],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-16726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-food-and-farming","tag-health","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Testing shows Ashburton is \u201cloaded with nitrate contamination\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/press-release\/testing-shows-ashburton-is-loaded-with-nitrate-contamination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Testing 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Abel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Steve Abel"},"description":"Steve Abel is a long-time environmental and climate activist who was part of the successful campaign to end native logging on crown land in the late 1990s; the GE Free environment campaign in the early 2000s; the Greenpeace campaign to stop Marsden B coalfired power station in 2005; and the alliance with Te Wh\u0101nau-\u0101-Apanui against Petrobras which led to a seven-year campaign that culminated in the end to offshore oil and gas exploration in Aotearoa in 2018. Abel is part of the urban tree protection group \u2013 Mana R\u0101kau \u2013 which emerged from the 240+ day occupation of the Canal Road native tree stand in Avondale that began in 2020. From 2021, as Senior Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa, Steve led the project to provide free nitrate water testing for rural people on bore supplies impacted by dairy contamination. Having first volunteered for Greenpeace in 1997, Abel resigned from the organisation in early 2023 to stand for parliament.","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/sabel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16726"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50024,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16726\/revisions\/50024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16726"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=16726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}