Dairy farm fined for excess effluent disposal

Patoka Dairies was fined $3000 in the Environment Court in Napier today for excess effluent discharge from a travelling irrigator.

The action was brought by Hawke's Bay Regional Council for a breach of the company’s consent conditions.
The company’s travelling irrigator applied more effluent to land than the soil could cope with and the effluent entered water. This was picked up during a routine inspection by Regional Council compliance staff.

The Regional Council submitted that there were minor effects which would have received an infringement notice had the company not already received both an infringement notice and a warning for previous consent breaches.

Judge Thompson agreed with the Council’s position and recognised that the company had previous warnings in setting the fine.