The Green Party is concerned about Fonterra’s plans to treble production at its Darfield Plant in Canterbury saying the region’s environment won’t be able to cope.

Green Party candidate for Selwyn, Eugenie Sage, says it has barely been nine months since Fonterra got approval to build its Darfield plant, and now it plans on trebling production and increasing wastewater and air discharges.

"What that represents is Fonterra not realising that there are environmental limits.

"We’ve had the government announcing a package for an $11 million clean-up of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere. Yet the major expansion of dairying in the Selwyn River, Waikirkiri catchment will be bad news for both aquifers there and our rivers."

The Green candidate says the South Island ecosystem is struggling to cope as it is.

"A report on Southland’s water quality which was released this week by Environment Southland showed that 89% of Southlands rivers and streams are either poor or very poor quality.

"The chief executive of Environment Southland, Ciaran Keogh, was recently quoted as saying the region can’t cope with the effects of more intensive farming."

Eugenie Sage says Canterbury needs a mixed agricultural economy not just industrial dairy farms.