A Pukekohe egg producer is facing serious pollution charges after local residents complained of strong offensive smells.

The owner of the poultry layer farm faces 10 charges of unlawfully discharging chicken effluent to land where it may enter water, and of not complying with Environment Waikato abatement notices to cease these discharges and to remove the stockpiled effluent from the site.

His company faces seven charges of unlawful discharge of chicken effluent to land where it may enter water.

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What’s all the buzz about Software-as-a-Service?  We’ve been in this space for almost four years, and the only thing that’s changed in the way we deliver our CS-VUE application is our logo.

We built CS-VUE on a rock solid linux platform back in late 2003.  Back then, Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (or LAMP) architecture was e-merging (sic).

So roll forward 48 months to October 2007 and - low and behold! – all that’s changed in our innovating, leading solution is the industry acronym “SaaS”!

There was a time when our application would be referred to as ASP (which had many faces: Application Server Protocol, Application Service Provider, Application … you get the point).

I read today that big guns are now touting SaaS as a real and dominant risk to their nice, tidy, stitched up product-licensed user base.

Here’s a case in point:-

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Hydro developer hit with big fine for ‘environmental vandalism’

 A total of more than $160,000 in fines and costs have been imposed on a company and a contractor developing a Waikato hydro power scheme in the upper Waipa River. The fines and costs resulted from a prosecution taken by Environment Waikato, for what council staff described as “flagrant environmental vandalism”.

Hydro Energy (Waipa) Ltd also faces a potential six-figure remediation cost relating to a massive rock spill which destroyed native bush and left large, unstable rocks poised above a popular fishing spot on the Waipa river, about 20 km south east of Te Kuiti.

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HORIZONS Regional Council is standing by its promise to get tough on people who damage the environment and says it wants to send a clear message that offences will not be tolerated.

The regional council added another successful prosecution to its list with yesterday’s guilty plea from William Jamieson of Shetland Farms Limited (SFL) in Marton district court on a charge of illegal discharge of dairy effluent onto a neighbouring property.

Mr Jamieson was subsequently convicted and fined $30,000 plus $2,500 in costs.

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New Zealand has been chosen to host World Environment Day 2008, the United Nations has announced.

The focus of the event will be on solutions and opportunities for countries, companies and communities to make the transition to a low carbon economy and lifestyle.

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Whitebaiters can breathe easy – the weather saved the day after the Shannon effluent ponds were emptied into the Mangaore Stream last week.

Horizons Regional Council group manager, planning and regulatory, Greg Carlyon said a fresh last week flushed away most of the sewage – which was loaded with used sanitary items and condoms.

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A third of public servants have witnessed misconduct in the workplace, ranging from lying on timesheets to sexual harassment, theft and abuse.

But only half of them reported it – which a survey commissioned by the State Services Commission says was due largely to mistrust of managers.

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Congratulations to Dominique Cornford and Angelene Butler of Andrew.Stewart Ltd (ASL) for their successful acceptance as full members of the New Zealand Planning Institute.

Their membership of the NZPI elevates our sister company, and specialist RMA consultancy, ASL to the local government ‘inner circle’ of accredited consultants and confirm their status as a multidisciplinary firm. 

Auckland City Council has introduced a new streamlined process for handling resource consents in a bid to provide a faster service.  A new standardised resource consent application format is available for use by recognised planning consultants such as ASL. 

Refer to www.nzplanning.co.nz or www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/services/resourceconsents/streamline.asp for more information.