Virginia Woolf/Stuff
The level of nitrate in the waters under parts of the Waimea Plains has long been of concern.
Agricultural and livestock land uses are the primary sources of nitrate contamination in the waters on and under the Waimea Plains, a new report has found.
A summary of existing science from catchment management consultant Andrew Fenemor for the Tasman District Council said monthly groundwater data suggested that historic contamination from a piggery that closed in the 1980s has “likely passed and that the nitrate signature in these wells is caused by local and upstream intensive land uses, particularly market gardening”.