Spreading oil and gas drilling waste on farmland, known as landfarming, has been declared safe and can continue under current regulations, according to a Government report.
The report released today by the Ministry for Primary Industries says the oil industry's standard technique of spreading ground-up rock and drilling mud onto land poses no risk to animal welfare or food safety as long as guidelines are followed.
The Ministry says stock must be kept off land and crops not harvested until hydrocarbon concentrations reach the levels it has prescribed.
These levels are the same as those currently used by the Taranaki Regional Council in its resource consents.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright recommended last year a working group be established to dispel concerns that meat and milk from landfarms is unsafe.
Landfarming involves spreading contaminated drilling waste onto the ground and mixing it with soil, allowing microbes to break down hydrocarbons.
There are currently four active landfarms in New Zealand, all in Taranaki.
It is favoured by farmers on sandy, marginal land because the process involves flattening paddocks and allowing irrigation systems to be installed.
Critics have claimed toxins from landfarms could have an effect on the milk produced by cows that graze the land, and Fonterra announced in 2013 it was to stop picking up milk from any new landfarms in Taranaki.
The new report says the risk from hydrocarbons is extremely low and waste components such as metals and salts posed no risk at all.
The Ministry says its guidance does not cover the spreading of fracking return fluids on land, and the standard practice in Taranaki is for these to be disposed by deep-well injection.
The Taranaki Regional Council has issued 17 resource consents for landfarming and 42 for mix-bury-cover (where waste is buried a metre deep) between 1998 and 2015, and not all of these consents have been exercised.
Green Party energy spokesman Gareth Hughes doesn't believe the guidelines protect animals or people from heavy metals in soil and are "less stringent" than existing laws.
He's called them "another fake solution" from the Government which makes it look like they're doing something when they're not.
"The guidelines suggest that a farmer can graze stock on land that’s previously been used as a toxic petroleum waste dump, with no requirement that the soil, or the milk that the cows produce, be tested for contamination by persistent heavy metal contaminants," he says.
But far from it, the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand says.
"Landfarming and the benefits it brings is actually a good story to tell," chief executive Cameron Madgwick says.
He believes the report will "alleviate any concerns" farmers and food producers had about the practice.
"Today’s release coupled with other reports released on the practice show that not only is landfarming a safe practice, it can also be a profitable one for farmers."
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