15. Resource Quality (Water, Air, Soil) Volume One land use consent or coastal permit applications. Application of the policy could be influenced by background levels of suspended sediment in the waterbody. This policy assists to give effect to Policy 22 of the NZCPS. [R] Policy 15.1.33 – Require land use consent for the establishment and operation of any new dairy farm. The policy identifies that land use consent will be required to convert rural land for dairy farming. This will allow the Council to evaluate the extent to which the proposed farm operation is to be set up to avoid or mitigate adverse effects of the operation on ground or surface water resources in the surrounding environment, including significant wetlands. This evaluation is assisted by Policy 15.1.34 below. This policy helps to implement the Council’s Progressive Implementation Plan developed to give effect to the NPSFM. [R] Policy 15.1.34 – Approve land use consent applications for new dairy farms where the proposed farming would have no more than minor adverse effects on ground or surface water quality or on significant wetlands. A land use consent application must identify the risks of new dairy farming and provide measures to address those risks, including as a minimum: (a) measures (including fences, bridges or culverts) to prevent stock entering onto or passing across the bed of any river or lake, significant wetland, or any drain or the Drainage Channel Network; (b) provision of an appropriate, non-grazed buffer along the margins of any river, lake, significant wetland, drain or the Drainage Channel Network, to intercept the runoff of contaminants from grazed pasture, with reference to the values of fresh waterbodies as identified in Appendix 5; (c) provision for storage of dairy effluent, with all storage ponds sufficiently sized to enable deferral of application to land until soil conditions are such that surface runoff and/or drainage do not occur; (d) demonstration of appropriate separation distances between effluent storage ponds and any surface waterbodies to ensure contamination of water does not occur (including during flood events); and (e) a nutrient management plan that includes nutrient inputs from dairy effluent, animal discharges, fertiliser and any other nutrient input. This policy defines the test for securing land use consent for a new dairy farm operation. It also describes the measures that the applicant can utilise to manage the adverse effects of the operation on ground or surface water quality, and significant wetlands. The measures set out in (a) to (e) are the minimum expected to be utilised by the applicant. The way in which these measures are to be implemented should be set out in the application. Methods of implementation The methods listed below are to be implemented by the Council unless otherwise specified. [R] 15.M.15 Groundwater Protection Areas Identify land in the vicinity of community drinking water supply bores as Groundwater Protection Areas. The spatial extent of the area will be determined by the vulnerability of the underlying groundwater to leachate contamination. 15 – 26