Greenpeace says that Environment Southland continues to risk people\u2019s health by delaying action against dairy pollution, following the announcement that they would instead conduct another investigation into the causes of the region\u2019s nitrate crisis.<\/p>\n\n
This will be the second investigation run by the regional council into the nitrate woes that caused Gore\u2019s town supply to exceed the legal limit for nitrate contamination last year. <\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace Aotearoa freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe<\/strong> says \u201cThe people of Southland don\u2019t need more reports \u2013 they need urgent action to reign in intensive dairying and protect people’s health from the nitrate crisis.\u201d <\/p>\n\n The first investigation only looked at the compliance history of resource consent holders in the area. Environment Southland says this new investigation will identify and understand broad nitrogen source types, groundwater flow and age, and how the Coopers Well is replenished \u2013 which could take up to three years to complete. <\/p>\n\n \u201cWhile more data is always useful, we have enough evidence that shows intensive dairying is the main source of nitrate contamination in the region, it should not delay urgent action to protect water supplies,\u201d says Appelbe. <\/p>\n\n Greenpeace recently issued a warning to pregnant people against drinking from the Lumsden water supply, after the organisation’s recent nitrate testing revealed that the town\u2019s water was at 6.14 mg\/L of nitrate (NO3-N) on average. The New Zealand College of Midwives recommends that pregnant people exposed to drinking water nitrate above 5 mg\/L \u2018consider accessing an alternative water source\u2019.<\/p>\n\n \u201cAccording to Environment Southland\u2019s own report earlier this year, up to 15,000 Southlanders are served by drinking-water supplies that are highly vulnerable to nitrate contamination. They deserve action now, not in three years.\u201d <\/p>\n\n \u201cWe need to stop nitrate from getting into the drinking water in the first place. That means reducing the size of the dairy herd, and phasing out the use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, because urea and cow urine are the primary sources of nitrate contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greenpeace says that Environment Southland continues to risk people\u2019s health by delaying action against dairy pollution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":75264,"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":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19,23],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-77422","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":"\n