Hamilton City Council and one of its staff are being prosecuted over a sewage sludge spill at the Pukete wastewater treatment plant last July.

The spill resulted in about 90,000 litres of partially treated sewage sludge entering the Waikato River.

The council and the staff member have each been charged in the Hamilton District Court by Waikato Regional Council with a discharge of sewage in breach of the Resource Management Act.

No court date has yet been set for the hearing of the charges. (Read on …)

A Canterbury farm manager who illegally discharged dairy effluent to land on a Springston property in October 2010 has been fined $20,000 and sentenced to 260 hours of community service after mitigation factors were taken into account.

Blair Lloyd knowingly discharged dairy effluent into a waterway that flows into Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere over a period of four days. The court was advised that the discharge would cumulatively compromise the values of Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere and the strategies to improve and rehabilitate the natural character of the Lake.

Mr Lloyd was charged with discharging dairy effluent to land via a travelling irrigator and by means of an open pipe, which he disconnected from the blocked irrigator and placed under trees nearby. (Read on …)

A Piopio farming couple have been convicted of offences under the Resource Management Act and face fines of over $73,000 for draining an internationally recognised wetland to gain further pasture land and increase farm production.

An earthworks company involved in the works has also been fined over $21,000.

The case brought by Waikato Regional Council – and heard in Hamilton District Court before Judge Melanie Harland – concerned a series of events in 2008 immediately following the purchase of a King Country farm by William and Pauline Burr. (Read on …)