A farmer and a family company have been convicted and fined almost $66,000 for illegally discharging dairy effluent on two Waikato farms.
Photo: SUPPLIED
The discharges occurred between December 2015 and March last year, at farms located at Patetonga and Turua.
The offenders, Ian Douglas Troughton and GT and AB Limited, have now been convicted and sentenced in the Auckland District Court, under the Resource Management Act.
A Waikato Regional Council inspection found that effluent had overflowed from a small sump, going 130 metres across a paddock and into a farm drain that linked to the Piako River.
The Regional Council said it was disappointing to have to prosecute, but it hoped that the fines would serve as a reminder to all farmers to have adequate dairy effluent storage.