Nearly 100 Otago resource consents involving effluent and odour discharge and water takes have been found to be non-compliant, with potential effects on the environment.

The Otago Regional Council’s compliance team carried out 810 audits of 718 activities and reviewed 2335 consent conditions for performance monitoring relating to 697 consents in the 12 months to June.

The audits revealed two areas of concern – water meter installation and discharge and water takes.

Environmental services manager Martin King said in a report to the council’s regulatory committee the level of compliance found with discharge and water take consents was “of concern”.

Of the 358 consents monitored, only 38.3% fully complied with their consent conditions. (Read on …)

Roil Contracting Ltd (RCL) and Patrick Roil have been convicted and fined $60,000 for stream reclamation works in the Pauatahanui Inlet.

Mr Roil and RCL earlier pleaded guilty to charges laid by Greater Wellington under the Resource Management Act 1991.

GW laid three charges against each party in December 2010 alleging that approximately 60 metres of the stream had been reclaimed and smothered with cleanfill and non-cleanfill material causing it to be diverted and become laden with sediment. (Read on …)

Already polluted lakes and rivers will only get worse under a flawed fresh-water policy, a new report warns.

Regional councils have been given too long – up to 30 years – to set pollution limits, the Cawthron Institute report says in a study commissioned by Fish and Game New Zealand.

“Imagine how many more rivers and lakes we’re going to lose to agricultural pollution in the interim,” chief executive Bryce Johnson said.

Environment Minister Nick Smith issued the national policy statement on fresh-water management in May, saying it gave clear directions to councils on the importance of improving water management.

At the time, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman accused Dr Smith of “taking the teeth” out of an earlier version recommended by a board of inquiry.

In the Cawthron report, resource economist Jim Sinner said if councils acted promptly, the decline in water quality could be stopped. (Read on …)

The Environment Court has fined two Northland dairy farmers $51,000 between them for discharging effluent into waterways despite repeated warnings and notices to upgrade their systems.

Anthony Joseph Schluter of Pekerau, about 14km northeast of Kaitaia, and James Dodunski, of JKD Farms, appeared for sentencing in an Environment Court in Whangarei yesterday.

JKD Farms was charged with two counts of discharging farm dairy effluent into separate tributaries and Schluter faced a single charge.

The convictions and penalties come after the latest survey by the Northland Regional Council, which laid the charges, showed only 43 per cent of dairy farms in the region fully complied with the effluent discharge conditions of their resource consent. (Read on …)

Bay of Plenty dairy farmers were reminded of the serious penalties for polluting after four were prosecuted last week for various degrees of contamination to waterways.The two businesses and three individuals (3 eastern Bay, 1 western Bay) were sentenced last week in the Environment Court in Tauranga.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council Water Management Group Manager Eddie Grogan said these prosecutions showed us that some farmers in our region were still not carrying out the necessary checks.

“All four dairy cases were a result of poor management of effluent systems, including ponds and irrigators,” Mr Grogan said.

The two companies and three farmers received significant fines totalling more than $118,000, which reflected the recent increase in penalties available to the Environment Court after an amendment to the Resource Management Act. (Read on …)

Lake Taupo consent rules to take effect next month

The Environment Court has now formally approved a new Waikato Regional Council policy aimed at protecting water quality in Lake Taupo, meaning farmers around the lake will need to apply for a resource consent to continue farming.

The implementation of the policy – known as Variation 5 to the Waikato Regional Plan – has been going on for some time, with a considerable amount of work already done by the council and farmers. However, finalising the policy has been awaiting sign off from the court following appeals by several parties who eventually came to agreement on the wording.

Now, following the Environment Court’s formal endorsement of the policy, the variation is due to become fully operative on 7 July. (Read on …)

Environment Southland will send copies of its compliance incident list to dairy industry stakeholders at the request of a councillor who believed they should be aware of the scale of the problem the council is trying to tackle.

At an environmental management committee meeting this week councillor Jan Riddell said the incident list provided by the compliance division showed about 50 per cent of the complaints were in response to dairy farming. (Read on …)