A former company director has been fined $7500 for contaminating Napier's inner harbour.
Richard Watson, 64, was the director of Napier Slip Way Ltd during the launching of a boat after its maintenance on a slipway last year.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with an abatement notice prohibiting contaminant discharges.
At sentencing before Judge Craig Thomson in the Environment Court at Napier today, Watson was ordered to pay a fine of $7500, 90 per cent of which would be paid to Hawke's Bay Regional Council.
The council brought the prosecution after an incident on June 18 last year in which a slip cradle entered the water during the relaunching of the boat after stripping, paint-stripping, painting and anti-fouling.
The contaminants also entered the water, and analysis later detected copper, tin, zinc and diuron.
Watson has since sold the business.
