Good job, a polluting farmer has been nailed for pouring crap into a waterway. They are repeat offenders too…either they are congenitally stupid or just wankers.
A Bay of Plenty dairy farm has been fined $74,000 in its second round of convictions for discharging effluent into a waterway within 18 months.
Opotiki company Riverlock Farms Ltd and directors Ian and Geoffrey Brown were found guilty after a two-day defended hearing in Whakatane District Court.
Last year the same company was convicted and fined $40,000 for discharging effluent from an effluent pond and discharging effluent from an irrigator where it could enter a waterway.
On Thursday the company and brothers were found guilty of three charges, including pumping underpass water containing effluent into a tributary of the Waioeka Stream, effluent flowing into the same tributary when an effluent pond overflowed. The third conviction was for failing to comply with a court order to obtain a report about the farms contingency plans for effluent management.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council was alerted to the offending by a member of the public. The offending occurred on October 18 last year – just three months after the company’s previous conviction in the Environment Court in Tauranga. Riverlock Farms is one of the largest farming operations in the Bay of Plenty, milking about 2,500 cows.
