State of Emergency declared for Banks Peninsula after flooding

Farm and rural guidance during recovery

Work can be undertaken to remediate and clean up following an extreme weather event. When going about the clean up and repairs, please be mindful that environmental rules and good management practices still apply during and post-hazard events.

Environmental rules and compliance

• If you are concerned about meeting compliance requirements due to damage or for safety reasons, please contact customer advisory on 0800 324 636.
• Document the decisions you make and the work you carry out – we may need to see record/photos of what you’ve done.
• For emergency pollution events, please call our 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 765 588 or report an environmental incident.
• Check your local council website/social media channels for response updates and need-to-know information.

Power outage guidelines

Downed powerlines can have major flow-on effects for farm operations, such as running pumps for stock water, effluent management and milking systems.

• Treat all downed lines as live during outage periods.
• Do not attempt to remove debris near power lines until safe to do so.
• Power may be restored at any time or may still be on even if lines are down.
• Stay at least 20 metres away from any downed lines and call your local power provider to check for power outages.
• You can find a list of power providers and information on Orion's website.

Effluent and waste milk management on dairy farms during hazard events

• Please contact your milk processor directly for support and guidance around potential delays and management of milk following a weather event.
• If milk is spoiled, it must be disposed of through effluent systems and irrigation systems only.
• Dumping of milk or effluent into drains, waterways or onto saturated soils is prohibited.
• If you are unable to dispose of your milk or effluent through your normal channels, or if your pond is at risk of overflowing (this could be because of power outage or infrastructure/irrigation damage or saturated soils) please contact us for guidance.
• In all instances, avoid runoff or discharge to waterways.

Stock access to waterways

Power outages may result in issues with regular stock water sources. In this instance, animal welfare is a priority –  we realise stock may need access to waterways. Please try to manage this carefully to:

• avoid environmental damage (where possible, choose waterways with gravel beds)
• maintain instream ecology values
• maintain awareness of downstream water supply and potential for contamination.

In some instances, stock may have access to waterways due to broken fences. Please exclude animals as soon as it is safe and practical to do so.

Feed management

We will provide considered support to those affected by these events and can offer on-farm advice including on management of feed supply and nitrogen loadings in relation to Farm Environment Plan (FEP) requirements. Please contact northern team leader Andrew Arps on 027 554 4007 for more information.

Emergency works for flooding

If you’ve been affected by the storm/adverse weather and need to undertake urgent works, please get in touch to let us know information including:

• What you are proposing to do
• How you are going to do it
• Where you are going to do it (including a map is helpful).

Drinking water sources

Flooding and silt can affect the safety of drinking water. This can be due to changes in the water supply, contamination of stored water, damage to pipes, tanks, pumps, or through loss of power supply.

If you have experienced flooding, we advise boiling water and letting others who are on the water supply know to do this too.

Follow the advice of your district council. Information and guidance about managing drinking water supplies during hazard events can be found on the Taumata Arowai (Water Services Authority) website or visit the Health Ed website for information specific to bores or wells.

Looking for farm-specific information? Visit the DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb adverse events pages.