The Taranaki Regional Council has no regrets about taking prosecutions that resulted in $600,000 in fines being dished out in the Environment Court this week.
TRC chairman David MacLeod. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
In the worst case, Silver Fern Farms was fined $337,500 over a massive ammonia spill in February that was a threat to human life and killed thousands of fish in the Tawhiti Stream near Hawera.
Water services company Citycare and the New Plymouth District Council were fined $112,000 and $66,500 respectively for their part in spilling 1.5 million cubic litres of human effluent into the Mangati Stream in Bell Block -- the equivalent of half the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The January 2019 sewage pump station failure - which lasted for more than nine hours -- also killed hundred of fish and eels.
The Tawhiti Stream, polluted by an ammonia spill from Silver Fern Farms' processing facility near Hawera. Photo: Facebook / Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
Meanwhile, Graincorp Liquid Terminals was fined $84,000 for a September 2019 tallow spill at Port Taranaki which solidified in the wastewater system creating a 60-tonne fatberg.
TRC chairman David MacLeod said given the level of offending the public would have expected nothing less that it take prosecutions.
"I actually think the community of Taranaki on these particular cases expected it to be elevated up to an enforcement place and there was evidence for that to be taken through to that point and, of course, the Environment Court judge has made his ruling as a result of that."
He said it was not about the money.
"This is not about the fines or the fact that people have been whacked over the head, I mean it's disappointing it has to get to that point, but this is all about changing behaviour and hopefully what's resulted this week in the courts is getting that change in behaviour from the appropriate company and entities.
A 60-tonne tallow spill by Graincorp Liquid Terminals caused a fatberg in the pipes of New Plymouth. Photo: Supplied
MacLeod did not think the high profile case reflected a spike in offending.
"We have another number of unauthorised incidents every year, but we just happen to have had some that you could say have been lifted to an enforcement area. They haven't been able to be dealt with by an abatement or infringement notice and that's a judgement call that's made on the severity of the incident."
He said it was unfortunate it had gotten that far.
"It's disappointing that the environmental affects of some of these cases was of the severity where the fines were quite large and so it is quite disappointing it had to get to an enforcement stage and I'm sure these entities are trying to make changes to their processes to eliminate this from happening again."