Source: Radio New Zealand
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A Waikato pig farm has been fined $437,000 for persistent discharges of raw piggery effluent into the environment, including sewage tanks overflowing into waterways.
Rawhiti Environmental Park was convicted on eight charges in the Hamilton District Court on Thursday under the Resource Management Act.
The 810-hectare piggery near Te Aroha was subject to a years-long investigation by Waikato Regional Council for poor effluent management, including discharge to land and onto streams of the Kaimai-Mamaku Range.
The fine will be the largest imposed under the Resource Management Act in its 34-year history, following government changes this year that saw penalties for non-compliance ramp up and a history of non-compliance considered in future consenting.
Council regional compliance manager Patrick Lynch said it was one of the worst cases it had dealt with, with regard to the extreme environmental impact and repeated failures to comply.
Contaminated tributary receiving waste piggery effluent from the concrete holding tanks. SUPPLIED/Waikato Regional Council
“This offending has been appalling,” Lynch said.
“What I think happened in this situation is that [the company] got overwhelmed through lack of maintenance, lack of investment in infrastructure and intensification of the business.
“And then they’re really in a difficult place, which they placed themselves in, and it’s so hard to recover from that.”
Lynch said serious offending could have severe impacts on the Waihou River, soil health and marine life.
He said the record fine imposed by Judge Melinda Dickey was a “significant outcome”, and he hoped it would encourage better compliance on the farm and encourage other farming companies to take environmental management seriously.
“It’s a real deterrent for this company, but should be a deterrence for others as well.
“We’re really just imploring companies dealing with volumes of waste is just to have good infrastructure, have the infrastructure before you intensify, make sure it’s maintained, keep this stuff front of mind because this is the situation you can end up in.”
Dead eel found downstream from the farm. SUPPLIED/Waikato Regional Council
Lynch said he hoped the outcome would be meaningful for the community that had been patient through the process.
An enforcement order was imposed on the company to prohibit any future unlawful discharges, as the farm could continue to operate, and will face continued monitoring.
In a statement, a Rawhiti Environmental Park spokesperson said they were sorry the effluent issues occurred and accepted the court’s decision.
The statement said the issues began after the departure of a lease-holder who left the effluent system and infrastructure in poor condition and when Rawhiti resumed control and discovered the system was severely compromised, they moved quickly to put a long-term solution in place.
Rawhiti made the decision to keep the farm operating and invested more than $1 million in a state-of-the-art effluent system.
The spokesperson said Cyclone Gabrielle and the record rainfall through much of 2023 significantly delayed earthworks, which meant the new system could not be commissioned until December 2023.
They said the new system is now performing to a high standard and they are continuing to lift environmental performance including the planting of more than 2000 native plants along waterways to enhance biodiversity and protect water quality.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
