New Zealand / Regional

Dairy company fined for waterway pollution

17:31 pm on 30 March 2015

A dairy company has been fined more than $25,000 for damage to a Waikato stream.

J and J Watt Limited was charged with disturbing the beds of a stream and an area of wetland on the Cambridge farm between 2010 and 2013.

The farming company had applied for a resource consent to carry out earthworks to an erosion-prone area, which contained a small area of wetland.

However, the Waikato Regional Council said the company breached the conditions of that consent.

It said the work resulted in a significant amount of sediment flowing into the stream, then into the Waikato River.

In the Hamilton District Court, Judge Craig Thompson ordered the company to pay a fine of $26,000 dollars.