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The Muster- Anna Gillespie: Poo Tales · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back, you're listening to The Muster.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Anna Gillespie is President of Otago Federated Farmers, farming just
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: out of Omakau.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Anna, good afternoon.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Oh look, it's been a hot topic up there in
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  Speaker 2: your neck of the woods regarding sludge being carted onto
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: farmland and it's been going on for a while and
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: it's got a few people hot under the collar.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Cheers, Andy. Yeah, it certainly has. Yeah, it's been going
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: on since probably July or August. Yeah, cutting sludge from
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Wanaka treatment plant, well, yep, Wanaka sewerage ponds to Lauder.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, I think the obvious question is why?
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  Speaker 3: For QLDC, for the Queensland Lakes District Council, it's a
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  Speaker 3: cheaper option than trucking it to Southland to the AB
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: line pit at Winton. And so, I mean, cost saving.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: They were looking for some other way of dealing with
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  Speaker 3: it and really cost us a driver around that, which
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  Speaker 3: is understandable. I mean, we're all at them to keep
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: their rates down. So, you know, they're looking for other
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  Speaker 3: options and, yeah, came up with this option. But, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we don't consider that a good strategy or, you know,
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  Speaker 3: a long-term option.
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  Speaker 2: Where does this stand regarding the consenting process? Did it
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  Speaker 2: all go through?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so the... Otago Regional Council gave them a non-notified
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  Speaker 3: consent to spread.
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  Speaker 2: It to land. So how treated is this so-called water
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  Speaker 2: when it goes on the land or the sludge.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: As it is?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not treated. It's dewatered. It has a thickener
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  Speaker 3: in it. It's pretty much air water and she's good
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  Speaker 3: to go again. It's kind of, you know, like it's
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  Speaker 3: not a, I mean, yeah, it's not treated at all really.
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  Speaker 3: And a sense of, Treating it and taking any chemical
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  Speaker 3: elements out of it or changing it, really, it's not treated.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: The residents around Lauda, what do they make of the situation?
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  Speaker 3: No, they're pretty angry about it. And real fear over
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  Speaker 3: it getting into stock water and house water systems. It's
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  Speaker 3: kind of in the higher end of the catchment in
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  Speaker 3: terms of it's got a lot of Lauda catchment below it. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of stock water bores and house... systems
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  Speaker 3: that it could get into that people are pretty upset about.
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  Speaker 3: As you can imagine, I mean, you know, and the
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  Speaker 3: guy next door, I mean, he's been farming there for
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  Speaker 3: 54 years and now his house stinks like a bloody
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  Speaker 3: toilet and, you know, like he's just absolutely in the
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  Speaker 3: firing line of it. It's like you get a windy
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  Speaker 3: day and it's just going to, you know, any dust
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  Speaker 3: from it's going to blow in his direction and it's
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  Speaker 3: pretty horrific. The consent holder bought the property and then, yeah,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: they've got consent to spread the What's.
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  Speaker 2: The dialogue been like between you guys and the ORC
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  Speaker 2: and other parties?
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  Speaker 1: Has it been existing?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, ORC has certainly come up. I mean, it wasn't
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  Speaker 3: to start with, obviously, and the consent went through in January,
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  Speaker 3: and it wasn't until May that people became aware of
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  Speaker 3: it and what was actually happening. And ORC have come
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  Speaker 3: up and been up and had community meetings since then
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  Speaker 3: and Yeah, working with the community to gather information that
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  Speaker 3: wasn't in the consent. So when the consent application went in,
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  Speaker 3: it was missing a whole lot of information, you know,
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  Speaker 3: about stock water balls and stuff like that, the effect
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  Speaker 3: on neighbouring properties. And so, yeah, OSCA, yeah, working hard
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: now to actually gather all that information and they will
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  Speaker 3: start reviewing the consent at the end of October.
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  Speaker 2: As far as cubic metres or the amount of sludge
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  Speaker 2: allowed to go on this farmland, what's it consented to?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, jeez, now you've got me on the fly. I
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  Speaker 3: can't remember off the top of my head. It's quite
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  Speaker 3: a lot. Like, it's, yeah, it's truck, you know, a
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  Speaker 3: big truckload a day, pretty much, is what they'll... And
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I think, I mean, it's consented to more than that,
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  Speaker 3: but that's what's kind of coming in at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Now, you think about your average cocky, and if they
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: did something like this, they'd be hauled over the gunnels.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and that's the thing. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: you can kind of pick out all the different factors
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  Speaker 3: within it, within the consent, but I mean... One of
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  Speaker 3: the standout in farmer lingo is 600 kilos of nitrogen
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  Speaker 3: per hectare in one application, basically. And then they're going
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  Speaker 3: to grow a crop in dryland central Otago and soak
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  Speaker 3: that up, supposedly. It's like, well, anyone with a farming
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  Speaker 3: background knows that it's not going to work. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the best dryland crop around here, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it would have to be a cracker season. You might
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  Speaker 3: get 12 tonne if you're lucky. But, I mean, on average,
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  Speaker 3: you'd be... Like our dryland, you know, I measure grass weekly, so...
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  Speaker 3: Our dry land stuff does about seven tonne of grass.
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  Speaker 3: And when it's absolutely cranking, it's growing as much as
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: the irrigated. But as soon as you're in a moisture deficit,
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  Speaker 3: then it shuts down. And in the summer, it gets
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: too hot and doesn't grow at all. You get kind
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: of soil temperatures over 28 degrees kind of thing. It
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  Speaker 3: gets pretty.
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  Speaker 2: What's it going to be like with all these housing
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  Speaker 2: projects on the go as well?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you don't really want to have to comprehend it.
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  Speaker 3: No, and that's the issue, right? It's a wider kind
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  Speaker 3: of conversation that we need to have about regional infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: and national infrastructure and, you know, it's all very well
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  Speaker 3: to keep passing through, you know, 250 house subdivisions and
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  Speaker 3: that's happening right around central Otago. That's not just a
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  Speaker 3: Wanaka issue or a Queenstown issue. That's a, you know,
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  Speaker 3: that whole triangle, Wanaka, Queenstown, Cromwell, Alexandra is expanding. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: the last 15 years that I've lived here, it's probably
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  Speaker 3: damn near doubled in size, I would venture to say,
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  Speaker 3: in terms of the number of houses. Like, it's That's
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  Speaker 3: just growing flat out as well. Omakau's the same. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: all the little towns as well are growing. So it's
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  Speaker 3: just becoming more and more of an issue. And we
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  Speaker 3: need to be having, you know, a long-term kind of
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  Speaker 3: discussion around it, just not coming up with these short-term solutions.
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  Speaker 3: And really that's around like a biochar system or something
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  Speaker 3: like that that incinerates it, that you get a product
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  Speaker 3: out of it that's ash that can be spread onto
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  Speaker 3: farm or... You know, I'm no waste expert, but there's
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  Speaker 3: other systems. I mean, God, I'm kind of like this
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  Speaker 3: is going back to the 80s where they used to
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  Speaker 3: spread it along the sides of the roads kind of thing.
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  Speaker 3: It's like this is not where we want to be
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  Speaker 3: as a country. And if everyone wants farmers to clean
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  Speaker 3: up their act, then the urban population need to do
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  Speaker 3: the same because they're not dumping it on us.
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  Speaker 2: And the concern around rate rises as well, where that
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  Speaker 2: money's going to.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Well, that all comes into the equation as well, doesn't it?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. As a farmer, you know in a budget you
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  Speaker 3: have your needs and your wants, right? And councils need
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  Speaker 3: to start doing the same. It's all real well to
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: want a great big community centre. In Cromwell, they just
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: got a new one, and then they haven't emptied their
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  Speaker 3: bloody surge base for the last 10 years. It's like,
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  Speaker 3: come on, folks. What's your need and what's your want?
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  Speaker 3: And I get that they think that their wants are
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: actually needs, but... you've got to kind of cover your
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  Speaker 3: basics first as a council, and all councils need to
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  Speaker 3: do this. They're all guilty of it. Yeah, do the
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  Speaker 3: basics right, and then, you know, if the community thinks
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  Speaker 3: that they need something after that, then fine, go for it. But,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if they're all happy to pay the rates
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  Speaker 3: on it, that's one thing. But, yeah, it's just getting
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  Speaker 3: a bit out of hand, really.
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  Speaker 2: Just while we're talking to you briefly, Anna, as well,
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  Speaker 2: the season down here in Southland has been a rough one.
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  Speaker 2: The last week's offered a bit of a respite. You're
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  Speaker 2: up there in central Otago, just out of Omikau. You've
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  Speaker 2: had a bit of snow recently, but overall, ground conditions?
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  Speaker 3: Pretty good now, yeah. It was pretty dry through August, September.
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  Speaker 3: We had about 80 mil of rain. Yeah, it dried
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  Speaker 3: out a wee bit now. I mean, it's perfect ground
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  Speaker 3: conditions at the moment. It's still cold, which is kind
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  Speaker 3: of late. We're probably at least two weeks late growing.
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  Speaker 3: But onwards and upwards, look forward to spring and growing
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  Speaker 3: as much grass as we can through the spring before
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  Speaker 3: the summer hits.
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  Speaker 1: Good on you, Anna. Thanks for your time.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Andy. Anna Gillespie, President of Otago Federated Farmers, in
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: this issue with the sludge going onto farmland. Up next
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: on the muster, we have Daryl Moyles of Sgt Dan's
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Stock Foods and before the end of the hour, Harry
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: McKellen out of Te Anau Young Farmers.