Whangarei District Council is to change land leases in some areas to try to stop cattle fouling rivers.

The decision follows action by a local man Milan Ruka, who bought a boat and camera and began filming the pollution of waterways.

The Regional Council has said there is little it can do, despite pictures of dead cows, cattle grazing on unfenced river banks and stock drinking from streams.

However, Whangarei deputy mayor Phil Halse says his council leases riparian land to farmers in the Hikurangi drainage area and it has a reponsibility to look after it. (Read on …)

Palmerston North’s struggling wastewater treatment plant has been chosen for a $1 million pilot scheme to recycle waste sludge into re-useable chemical by-products.

Environment Minister Nick Smith announced government funding for the project in the city this morning.

But the boost does not shift his resolve to ensure both councils make progress on cleaning up the Manawatu River after Horizons withdrew an abatement notice allowing the councils to work together to resolve the pollution problems.

“I am sending a very clear message that ongoing non compliance is not acceptable. (Read on …)

Four hotly-contested resource consents to pump both treated and untreated sewage into the Tasman Sea have been approved.

Permission has been given for New Plymouth District Council to pump Waitara and New Plymouth sewage during the building of a $14 million pipeline and then for 30 years from the treatment plants of both towns.

The move follows a packed hearing in front of independent commissioners in New Plymouth at the start of the month.

The four consents granted range from five years, covering the building of the pipeline, to 30 years, for when the pipeline and treatment plant upgrades are finished. (Read on …)

The case brought by Waikato Regional Council – and heard in Hamilton District Court before Judge Melanie Harland – concerned two events in March and November last year at a farm in Paewhenua Rd owned by the Gregan Family Trust.

Following helicopter monitoring by the council in November 2010 a ground inspection was carried out at the Gregan property. This inspection showed that effluent from a holding pond was deliberately being siphoned off to a nearby paddock where it was ponded in large volumes. Council staff also found that there was a substantial recent overflow of effluent from a second holding pond. (Read on …)

Two Bay of Plenty farmers who dumped effluent into beachside waterways have been fined a total of more than $50,000.

Paul Warneford of Warneford Farms Ltd faced a charge after allowing an irrigation machine to discharge dairy effluent into a water way leading to the Nukuhou River, which flows into the Ohiwa Harbour. (Read on …)

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is developing a long term plan for monitoring the environmental effects caused by the Rena cargo ship grounding near Tauranga.

The monitoring plan is being developed in partnership between local government authorities, central government agencies and iwi.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Science Manager Rob Donald said that the plan will cover the areas that are known to have received oil and container debris and this may involve monitoring for several years.

(Read on …)

Results from the latest round of regional council flyovers shows less than 10 per cent of North Waikato farmers breaching effluent rules.

The latest helicopter flights, the second of seven flyovers this season, covered 139 dairy farms around Huntly last month.

The findings show 9 per cent of properties appeared “significantly non-compliant”. Serious non-compliance is when effluent has entered or is in danger of entering waterways. (Read on …)