Polluting the waterways in the Bay of Plenty has come at the expense of not only the environment, but also three farmers, who this month have been sentenced for causing various degrees of contamination. Fonterra also joined the pollution ranks for the area, after the Bay of Plenty Council successfully prosecuted the dairy giant for a chemical spill that ended up in a storm water drain at its Edgecumbe milk processing factory. (Read on …)

A Wellington developer and a contractor have been fined $10,000 each in the District Court after pleading guilty to undertaking illegal earthworks on a hillside above the entrance to the Ngauranga Gorge.

Primeproperty Group Limited and Morepork Holdings (2004) Limited both earlier pleaded guilty to using a bulldozer to cut tracks on the hillside above Jarden Mile and the Hutt Road in contravention of the Resource Management Act. The prosecution had been pursued by Wellington City Council.

Last Friday 10 September, Judge Thompson convicted and fined the companies $10,000 each for the offence. Wellington City Council will receive 90% of the fines.  (Read on …)

Two dairy farms have to pay a total of $46,500 for illegal discharges of dairy effluent, penalties imposed in the Oamaru District Court yesterday.

Two dairy farm companies and a sharemilker, company director and farm worker appeared before Alternate Environment Court Judge Paul Kellar on a total of five charges relating to separate dairy effluent discharges on to land at Papakaio and Glenavy.

A third dairy company and two employees at Flag Swamp had sentencing deferred. (Read on …)