MEDIA RELEASE
OTAGO REGIONAL COUNCIL
15 October 2008
Dairy inspections find more non-compliant practices
The Otago Regional Council (ORC) Compliance Committee heard today that eight significant and 20 minor breaches of the Regional Water Plan rules had been discovered during recent Otago dairy farm inspections.

ORC Director Resource Management Dr Selva Selvarajah said the problems relate to the discharge of effluent. Farmers are applying effluent at too high a rate and causing ponding on the soils, or in some cases, discharging effluent directly into creeks.
“Some dairy farmers have failed to invest in sufficient effluent storage, or are not maintaining their effluent irrigators, which also causes problems for the soils they’re farming. It appears there are still dairy farmers who are willing to disregard the law and put the land, water and themselves at risk,” Dr Selvarajah said.
Deputy chairman Stephen Woodhead said he was extremely disappointed at the results so far. Council staff have inspected 120 farms so far and have another 260 to do.
“Staff and councillors had been proactive in working with dairy farmers and it’s shocking that some farmers continue to give their industry such a bad name. We have provided a great deal of practical advice to dairy farmers over the past year on what practices are expected and it was hoped that these activities and recent prosecutions would result in improved on farm effluent discharge practices,” he said.
Cr Woodhead said ORC would continue to work with dairy farmers to assist them to comply, but it’s up to them to improve their operations.
“There’s no excuse for those that are found breaking the rules. We’ll continue to seek prosecutions against those farmers who don’t comply with the Regional Water Plan requirements for the proper use of dairy effluent,” Cr Woodhead said.
For more information please contact:
Dr Selva Selvarajah
Director Resource Management
Tel: 03 474 0827 or 0274 329 810
Martin King
Manager Compliance
Tel: 03 474 0827 or 027 487 9991
Cr Stephen Woodhead
Tel: 027 280 1635