Reid’s Piggery is once again under fire from a neighbour who says the business has failed to honour renewed consent obligations granted early last year.

Graham Ross lives nearby the Haringa Road piggery on Mangatarere Valley Road and said the 15-year consent allows for the continued spreading of effluent over its farmland and the discharge of associated odours.

Mr Ross was at a community liaison meeting convened by the Greater Wellington Regional Council and chaired by Masterton District councillor Jonathan Hooker late last month at Belvedere Hall attended by about 30 concerned residents, Reid’s management as well as supporters of the piggery.

“Generally, conditions to the consent agreed to by the piggery are aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the effluent disposal on the wider environment,” Mr Ross said.
“The first complete annual compliance report for Reid’s Piggery has shown that the piggery has failed to meet a number of the consent conditions primarily on effluent management and offensive odour discharges,” he said.

Mr Ross said Reid’s previous compliance record on their former consent was poor and the most recent report from the Greater Wellington Regional Council had ruled the piggery non-compliant on about a dozen points.

“Water quality and volume are issues that affect everyone, particularly downstream of any contamination or draw off. The Mangatarere River, which flows through the affected land is documented as having ‘very poor water quality’ and has been described as one of the most polluted rivers in the greater Wellington region.

“People drawing their water from bores in the area need to be aware of the potential for their bore water to be polluted  this is not what our Carrington area should be known for,” Mr Ross said.

Greater Wellington Regional Council team leader of consent and compliance Stephen Thawley confirmed a report had shown full, partial and non-compliance by Reid’s but said some conditions required lead-in time.

“In terms of our response we are following up with the Reids, especially in relation to the non-compliance issues  we’ll take whatever action is appropriate to follow up with consent holders to bring them in to compliance,” Mr Thawley said.

Reid’s general manager Steve Shivas said he wanted to move faster towards full compliance but said consent conditions had become stricter for regional councils across the board and implementing changes was a huge undertaking, especially given the scale of Reid’s operation.

“It does take a lot of time  the current consent is miles apart from previous consents and the bar is now way higher,” Mr Shivas said.

“I’d like to be moving faster towards full compliance but New Zealand has a lot of limiting factors; in saying that we haven’t got readily available consultants to make things happen, New Zealand is a small country with limited expertise and it’s a very costly exercise.

“I think there are actually one or two areas we are leading the country in design&I’m comfortable we’re heading in the right direction.”

Mr Shivas said the company’s goal was for “clean and green” sustainability and job creation in Wairarapa.

He also responded to criticisms over Reid’s use of effluent and said the practice was gaining favour globally; “the world’s heading towards recycling, partially treated effluent is a lot more user friendly than artificial fertilisers.”

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