Champions Series: Sandy Cameron

For the love of water

Having a love for land, farming and the community sparked a passion for water for one Kurow woman.

Sandy Cameron has become well-informed about all things water after years of involvement with many aspects of it, both through her own farming experiences and the community.

As Sandy puts it: “there is always [something] going on with water.”

Sandy and her husband Walter farm at Wainui Station near Kurow. Recently they completed farm succession and have chosen to remain living on the farm maintaining an active interest in the properties and local community.

Wainui Station has been farmed by the Cameron family for 106 years and is a 14,000 sheep, beef and cropping property on the North Bank of the Waitaki River. All stock is bred and finished on the property as well as harvesting their own winter feed and selling surplus hay, baleage, and grain. They also farm another property ‘Viewfield’ in the Hakamatera Valley, a dry land 925-hectare 7,000 sheep, beef, and cropping (both grain and small seed) farm.

Mr and Mrs Cameron have four adult children – Georgina, Tim, Kate, and Pip. Georgina farms at Wainui and Tim at Viewfield.

Between the two properties there are six full time staff including themselves, plus seasonal workers. They also rely on a significant amount of contract work such as shearing, fencing, transport, spraying, harvesting, and more which drew local business and community for agricultural merchandise. Wainui Station and Viewfield Farms were two of the 17 properties used by Beef and Lamb NZ for developing Environment Canterbury’s Matrix of Good Management Practice programme in 2014.

Wainui Station included 3,800 freehold hectares, a diverse range of soils, over 500 hectares of irrigable flats, low lying fans and terraces, and medium-to-steep hill country rising to 1,021 metres above sea level.

Living in a harsh climate with a short growing season and a seasonal rainfall of 500–600mm per annum, with drought in the summer being common-place, meant having reliable access to water was crucial for their business.

“Irrigation means you know you can do your job and finish it,” Mrs Cameron said.

Although originally a dental nurse, over time Mrs Cameron found it necessary to be involved with all things water, which began through involvement with irrigation and consents on her family’s property. After learning more Mrs Cameron began to share her expertise beyond their farm gates.

“There is a lot of complexity when it comes to water and water consents … nothing gives me more pleasure than helping a young farmer understand [their] water consent, or simply explaining how it works.”

Mrs Cameron said Wainui Station has been heavily involved with the resource management planning framework and water management over the past two decades.

For nine years Mrs Cameron has been the secretary of the Waitaki Independent Irrigators Inc., representing 52 properties, which falls under the umbrella of the Waitaki Irrigators Collective (WIC), a collective leading sustainable water planning processes for water users in the catchment, to enable the social and economic development and wellbeing of the Waitaki community.

Mrs Cameron has been involved in providing submissions and evidence to the development of the Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan, the (abandoned) Project Aqua hydroelectricity proposal, the Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill, the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan, as well as regional plan change processes.

As applicants seeking to renew existing consents we were caught up in the ministerial “call in” of Waitaki water permit applications in 2004 and subsequently the very complex Lower Waitaki hearings in 2008, she said.

They were an affected party (providing evidence) to the North Bank Tunnel Project, which was an application by Meridian Energy Ltd to take up to 260 cumecs of water from Lake Waitaki for the purpose of hydro generation. Meridian proposed to use “a threeand-a-half kilometre corridor of land through our productive flats to convey the water by open canal.”

She said this totally hijacked their lives for several years before it was abandoned in 2013.

“Our livelihoods were turned upside down,

Sandy Cameron in the museum she has set up in the 1914 “Wainui” school house.

everything we had worked for was at risk.”

At the same time, the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan (WCWARP) which had been written by a governmentappointed board to allocate water to different activities in the catchment did not adequately provide for consent renewal applications. While the policies in the Plan acknowledged their priority over those seeking to take new water, hearings and subsequent appeals were still required, which were long, complicated processes and it was 2011 before the Cameron’s were finally granted consent renewal.

“Understanding the ongoing ins and outs of consenting has required an enormous amount of learning … I have my own copy of the Resource Management Act it’s amazing what you can actually remember when you need to.”

She had also been involved with submitting to provide evidence to the Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (fully operative in 2017) and the various Plan changes that have followed, more recently Plan Change 5 and associated nutrient management.

“There have now been seven Plan Changes in a period of two years, we no sooner finish submitting to one Plan and another is notified – in many instances before the former has even become operative.

“Farming can be very complex, there are a lot of variables across the regions, and issues in the Waitaki catchment can be very different to elsewhere.”

Although these processes have been difficult at times and have involved some head scratching moments, Mrs Cameron said they have created a focus on the health of water and ecosystems.

“Animal health is a big focus for us, always has been, and so is the environment, if you don’t look after your land you can’t look after your animals properly, they go hand in hand.”

WATER MANAGEMENT AT WAINUI STATION

“At Wainui, we hold one Environment Canterbury resource consent (these were several separate permits but have all recently merged into one) to irrigate 510 hectares.”

Mrs Cameron said having this permit allowed them to invest in their property in order to increase efficiencies.

“These investments are not made lightly. We know our land best and support good management practice. Any uncertainty created through yet further farming restraints increases our exposure to risk (financial) which in turn impacts on our investment decisions, and ultimately impacts the local economy.”

Wainui has had irrigation for over 40 years. In the 1960s there were travelling wheel irrigators and hard hose guns before 2004, when K-Line (moveable pods), pivots, and fixed grid systems were installed.

Mrs Cameron said they were also lucky to have some self-irrigating soils, which meant, in places, the root zone met the water table.

The Camerons’ water permit is subject to the comprehensive suite of water quality conditions now likely to become widespread under the new proposed National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management.

In addition, their takes are telemetered, and they are registered on the Environment Canterbury Farm Portal for reporting purposes. Conditions of their water permit include: • Minimum flow restrictions • Implementing a Farm Environment Plan, which is audited on an annual basis, and must implement mandatory good management practices across the property • Undertaking OVERSEER nutrient budgeting and management • Fertiliser timing restrictions • The requirement for fertiliser to be applied in accordance with the Code of Practice for Nutrient Management • Any new irrigation infrastructure is designed and certified by a suitably qualified independent expert • All irrigation infrastructure is to be tested on a regular basis in accordance with the Code of Practice for

Irrigation Evaluation • Developing or maintaining riparian margins and shelter belts • Fencing of waterways • Other forms of riparian management.

Mrs Cameron said their daughter Georgie received an A Grade from Environment Canterbury for their first FEP audit. They are also inspected and audited annually by AsureQuality, wholly owned by the New Zealand government to ensure produce meets with the highest standards of quality and safety. Part of their wool clip is purchased by Global Merino and for this we need to be registered as Reasonable Wool Standard (RWS) to ensure our product meets the requirement of the end users, which meant their farm was inspected and audited by Global Merino.

Fencing waterways has become a requirement to many farming operations. Over the years they have undertaken extensive fencing of waterways and more recently completed eight kilometres of double fencing, at a cost of $120,000 for labour and materials.

Mrs Cameron said as farmers it was always front of mind of how they could best steward their environment.

“We know we can’t farm without healthy water and land.”

However, from her experiences she feared future generations were at risk of drowning in paperwork.