Taupo Urban Structure Plan - Taupo District Council

♦ Identified who had roles and responsibilities in the catchment to protect
the Lake.
Stage 2 of the project:
♦ Focuses on the Ngati Tuwharetoa Iwi Management Plan, which identifies
the values important to the hapu and makes recommendations for
protecting them.
♦ Looks at potential solutions to the threats identified in Stage 1 of the
project, including public feedback into the potential solutions.
The Final Stage of the project focuses on implementation and includes an
action plan on how the Lake will be effectively managed by all the relevant
organisations.
Environment Waikato is presently working on the Protecting Lake Taupo
Strategy, a subset of the wider 2020 Taupo-nui-a-Tia project based on the
need to reduce nitrogen by 20 percent from current levels over the next 15
years.
Stage 1 of the strategy pulled together key stakeholder, community, Iwi, local
and central government input. Stage 2 of the strategy provides for more
formal community input via the Long-Term Council Community Plan
consultation process. Finally, Stage 3 of the strategy entails Environment
Waikato making formal variations to the Waikato Regional Plan to restrict
nitrogen outputs from rural land, wastewater treatment and residential
development.
Some of the options for controlling the amount of nitrogen flowing into the
Lake include:
♦ Changing farm management systems to control effluent and reduce
nitrogen losses.
♦ Changing land-use from agriculture to other activities, such as forestry,
that produce much less nitrogen.
♦ Limiting fertiliser use on cultivated and pastoral land.
♦ Raising standards for urban wastewater and stormwater management.
♦ Improving septic tank standards.
These measures mean changing the way land is used which will particularly
impact on the rural lifestyle and economy. In turn this will mean rethinking
some current approaches to economic development / land development the
economic development in the District and how best to preserve the quality of
the Lake.
In terms of urban lifestyle and economy the following measures are
anticipated:
♦ Higher Environmental Standards for New Residential Development
All new residential development within the Lake Taupo catchment will
need to meet higher environmental standards for sewage and stormwater
treatment.
♦ Upgrading Community Sewerage Schemes
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