A Taranaki dairy farmer has been fined for breaching resource consents conditions for the controversial practice of landfarming.
Taranaki Regional Council said it had found synthetic drilling mud generated by the oil and gas industry in streams and on vegetation at Colin Boyd's Tariki property.
It found drilling waste was spread near drains and surface water without an adequate buffer and that thick lines of drilling mud were evident on the surface of paddocks.
Mr Boyd has been fined $2250 and asked to explain the breaches.
Landfarming is where drilling waste is spread on marginal land and microbes in the soil then break down the waste. New pasture is subsequently sown on top.
In 2013 Fonterra said it would no longer accept milk from new landfarms.