Fonterra has been fined $192,000 this morning after it discharged buttermilk in a South Taranaki treatment pond that caused a stench in the local area.
The country's largest milk producer was last month found guilty of breaching the Resource Management Act over the odorous compounds coming out of the Eltham Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The South Taranaki District Council had already pleaded guilty to a charge for its part in the stink and was reportedly fined $115,000 in November last year.
Environment Court Judge Brian Dwyer said last month that he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the buttermilk discharged by Fonterra in October 2013 was the source and cause of the odour at Eltham between March and May last year.
This was not disputed during the case, but Fonterra challenged its criminal liability for the discharges.
Judge Dwyer, however, rejected the dairy giant's defences and found Fonterra guilty of the charge, which was laid by the Taranaki Regional Council.
A spokesman for the regional council confirmed Fonterra was fined $192,000 in the New Plymouth District Court.
Fonterra was last week fined $170,000 for discharging wastewater into the Rangitaiki River on six different occasions.
The dairy giant has pleaded guilty to four offences relating to their wastewater irrigation system and two for overflows at their Edgecumbe plant.
The Rangitaiki River was polluted by the failures between September 2014 and April this year.
By Hamish Fletcher of the New Zealand Herald
