Media Release 20 March 2009

$20,000 fine for Central Hawke’s Bay Dairy Farm

Stockade Pastoral Farms in Waipawa, Central Hawke’s Bay, was sentenced in the Napier District Court today following a defended hearing of a charge of discharging dairy effluent onto land in circumstances where the contaminant entered water.

Judge Thompson, when handing down a fine of $20,000, indicated that future offences of this type could look forward to elevated fine levels.

On 16 October 2007, a Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Compliance Officer visited Stockade Farm and observed farm effluent collecting in pools in paddocks and running into nearby Cochrane’s Creek. Cochrane’s Creek is a tributary of the Waipawa River. The effluent discharges were a result of a faulty irrigator which had not been correctly maintained by farm management.

Stockade Farms defended the prosecution on the grounds that they could not be held accountable for the failures of their farm manager and staff and that they had voiced their concerns to the management that they had to improve performance. Judge Thompson made it clear, in sentencing, that for farm owners to simply tell their managers to do better is not enough. There was an obligation on owners to take more positive and proactive action to protect the environment and conform to any resource consents for the property.

When imposing the $20,000 sentence, Judge Thompson indicated that this could have been a case that warranted a higher level of fine. He noted that previous levels of sentencing for similar offences had taken place at a time when milk solid prices were significantly lower. Elevated fines were necessary to act as a deterrent as farm prosecutions of this type had not appeared to have decreased over time.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Manager of Environmental Regulation, Darryl Lew, says “This is a timely reminder to dairy operators that not only are Courts likely to impose higher fines in future but that the Regional Council will continue to take enforcement action against those who continue to pollute the environment.”

ENDS

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