Fines totaling $42,000 have been handed down to two Hauraki-based dairy farm owners and a sharemilker in the latest sentencing for dairy effluent offences.

These fines are as a result of prosecutions taken by Environment Waikato following its helicopter monitoring programme in August 2009.

In the first of two similar cases before the Hamilton District Court last week, owner John Pinnell and his sharemilker Stephen Jamieson were fined $16,000 and $10,000 respectively for two offences involving the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent on to land at a Kopu property.

In a second case, owner Mark Millington was also fined $16,000 for four offences involving the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent on to land at a Paeroa property. (Read on …)

Three companies found guilty of spilling 10,000 litres of petrol have been ordered to pay the heaviest fine imposed in a regional council case in Auckland.

Petrol Alley Services (GAS), URS New Zealand and Brown Bros (NZ) were found guilty in the Auckland District Court over a fuel leak from a petrol station in Line Rd, Glen Innes.

The companies have been ordered to pay a fine of $160,000, as well as court costs of $80,000.

The court has also demanded an investigation of the fuel which remained in the ground, and the companies could be forced to pay a further $200,000 for a clean-up.

Prosecutor Auckland Regional Council said the charges and fine sent a strong message to large companies to be tighter in their procedures. (Read on …)

Taupo District Council has been prosecuted for dumping a “puddle of poo” near a playground in Mangakino.

About 30 residents were told at a meeting in the community last night sewage was dumped at the Mangakino Bowling Club pit on September 3, 2008.

Taupo District Council pleaded guilty to the charges laid by Environment Waikato in Tokoroa District Court and will be sentenced later this month.

The judge ordered the councils to hold the restorative justice meeting to work out how the suggested $27,000 fine could be put back into the Mangakino community. (Read on …)

Two Bay of Plenty farmers have been fined a total of nearly $60,000 for dirty dairying.

Fantastic Farms Limited was fined $10,000 on each of four charges relating to incidents where discharged dairy effluent entered the Waiteti Stream catchment near Rotorua.

Wildhaber Wench & Co and Lucas Wildhaber were also charged for effluent leaking into the catchment, and were fined $16,800 for two charges. (Read on …)

A Christchurch company has been fined $7000 for its failure to maintain the integrity of a storage bund on its property at 100 Ruru Road, Bromley, as required by the conditions of its resource consent. 

BJ Dakin and Company Limited’s consent from Environment Canterbury permits the storage of petroleum compounds, chlorinated hydrocarbons, solvents and timber treatment products in a purposely built bunded area on its site. The purpose of the bund was to prevent contaminants escaping from the site.

In October 2009, Environment Canterbury officers inspected the property and discovered that stormwater contained in the bund was discharging from a number of points along its western and southern sections. The failure to maintain the structure meant that the company was in breach of its resource consent which constituted an offence against sections 9(2) and 338(1) of the Resource Management Act. The company is defending a charge in relation to the stormwater spill. (Read on …)

A Morrinsville piggery whose acrid stench left neighbours with burning eyes and headaches and schoolchildren holding their noses in class has been fined $45,000.

Owner Ken McIntyre plans to move and may expand but declined to identify the new location.

Mr McIntyre has now been fined $95,000 after three prosecutions since 2007 for odour and other consent breaches at his Hutchinson Rd piggery, near the Kereone school and hall and several homes and farms. (Read on …)

The biggest and most expensive roading project ever in New Zealand is now up for tender after funding of up to $2 billion was approved for the job.

The Waterview Connection will link the southwestern motorway with the northwestern motorway and will include two three-lane tunnels along the route.

Once completed, the western ring route will provide a 48-kilometre alternative to State Highway 1 and the Auckland Harbour Bridge. (Read on …)