Waituna dairy farm manager Kevin Belling and his wife Rhonda Raymond-Williams have each been convicted and fined in the Invercargill District Court for four breaches of the Resource Management Act last September and October.
Two of the charges related to separate incidents where dairy effluent had ponded on their property after being sprayed from a travelling irrigator, and may have entered a watercourse. Another charge related to sludge and effluent from a concrete race flowing through a hole in a wall into a ditch, which fed into a tributary of the Waituna Stream. The fourth charge concerned dead cows being dumped in a hole in circumstances where they would have contaminated groundwater.
Mr Belling accepted responsibility for the offences and Judge Jane Borthwick fined him a total of $60,000 plus court costs – $20,000 and $25,000 on the charges relating to the failed travelling irrigator and $7,500 on each of the other two charges. Raymond-Williams, who owns the property and holds the resource consent for discharging effluent, was fined $1,500 plus costs on each charge. (Read on …)

Less than a year after being defeated by strong public opposition, the mining industry is planning another bid to gain access to minerals lying beneath the conservation estate, leading industry figures have indicated.

Labour MP David Parker yesterday said “senior” mining industry sources had told him they planned to seek an increase in the size of pockets of Schedule Four land, which may be used for mining related activities.

Under current law, miners could obtain permits to allow “interference” on Schedule Four land restricted to areas 10m by 10m. (Read on …)

Environment Minister Nick Smith this morning said new environmental protection laws dealing with New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone, much of which is earmarked for oil exploration, will come into effect in July next year.

Dr Smith’s announcement comes just a few weeks after Navy and the Police arrested protesters who were disrupting Brazilian company Petrobras’ exploration activity in the Raukumara basin which lies within the EEZ off East Cape.

The new law will make the Environmental Protection Authority responsible for issuing consents, monitoring and enforcement of activities within the EEZ which lies from 12km to 200km offshore and the Extended Continental Shelf, which extends beyond the EEZ. (Read on …)

The clean up of the contaminated Tui Mine site near Te Aroha is to get a further $15.2 million from the Government.

The funding is part of new initiative with the Green Party to better manage New Zealand’s toxic sites.

The Tui Mine will get another $1 million from local councils; $800,000 from the Waikato Regional Council and $200,000 from the Matamata-Piako District Council.

There was concern 160,000 tonnes of contaminated left-over crushed rock, know as mine tailings, were sitting precariously above Te Aroha, the Environment Minister Nick Smith said.

“Geo-technical reports indicate that life would be put at risk and damage of up to $168 million in the event of a modest earthquake or severe storm.” (Read on …)

Taranaki environmental champions ranging from primary school pupils to a large corporate were honoured at an awards ceremony in Stratford today.

Farmers, businesses and a district council also feature among winners of this year’s Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Awards.

“It’s great to be able to highlight some of the good environmental work going on in the community,” says the Council Chairman, David MacLeod.

“The fact that Taranaki enjoys a generally excellent environment is not an accident – it is the result of hard work in the community. The awards are an opportunity for us to express our appreciation and support.”

The Council has made nine awards for 2011, with four presented at today’s ceremony. Awards to three schools and two farming couples will be presented later in the year.

This year’s awards bring the total to 177 since they were inaugurated in 1993.

The Council’s annual awards recognise Taranaki projects or activities that contribute to or raise awareness of sustainable resource management, that are economically viable, and that are current or nearing completion. (Read on …)

Kerikeri man Mervyn James Pinny had denied 16 charges laid against him by the Northland Regional Council relating to a farm he owns at Awarua, about 13km south of Kaikohe.

He defended the charges before Environment Court Judge Gordon Whiting with the case heard in the Whangarei District Court over several days in December last year and January this year.

In a reserved judgment delivered recently, Judge Whiting convicted Pinny of four of the 16 charges the regional council had laid against him.  The judge dismissed him without conviction on the remaining charges, which he ruled had effectively been alternatives to those he had convicted Pinny of.

Meanwhile, Pinny’s farm manager, Hugh Raymond Bolton, who lives on the Awarua property, had earlier admitted three charges relating to the same incidents when he appeared in the Whangarei District Court in June 2010. (Read on …)

A Chinese-backed Australian mining company has revealed plans to explore for oil in the seabed off the Abel Tasman National Park coastline, across much of Golden Bay and the northwest corner of the South Island.

Golden Bay iwi are alarmed at the plans by Sydney-based Greywolf Goldmining NL. It is proposing drilling the seabed for oil and gas, as well as prospecting for coal in Golden Bay and developing Port Tarakohe.

The news comes on the heels of a controversial oil exploration project by South American company Petrobras off the North Island’s East Coast, which has sparked high-profile protests by environmentalists and iwi.

Speaking from Sydney, Greywolf chief executive Edward Lancaster said the company hoped to start explorations and eventual mining operations once approval was granted from Crown Minerals – and if its Chinese partners considered it worthwhile. (Read on …)

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras says it will beef up its New Zealand operations and remains on track to spend more than $150 million on exploration off East Cape in spite of protests.

It says it will resume its seismic survey when it is safe to do so. Police yesterday warned Greenpeace protesters to keep away.

Petrobras’ New Zealand project head, Marco Toledo, said that while there were “many things that can happen” it was too soon to consider pulling out and the company wanted to complete work that would lead to a decision to drill or drop the permit in three years’ time.

By sales, Petrobras is the third-biggest oil company in the world with sales of close to $150 billion a year. (Read on …)