Prosecutions of farmers queried

Hamish Anderson
Hamish Anderson
The Otago Regional Council is prosecuting for incidents that do not warrant a criminal conviction and a different approach is needed, a Clutha District Council councillor says in the wake of three prosecutions for effluent ponding on Clutha properties.

Cr Hamish Anderson, a dairy farmer, and project manager for the Clutha District Water Catchments Quality Management Project, was reacting to a summary of Otago Regional Council (ORC) prosecutions presented to the Clutha District Council Regulatory Services committee meeting in Balclutha recently.

Cr Anderson said he did not have a problem with prosecutions when effluent entered a waterway, but most dairy farms experienced some ponding and ''in 99% of cases'' there were no negative environmental effects.

''They're prosecuting . . . for something that doesn't warrant a criminal prosecution.''

CDC regulatory manager David Campbell's report detailed three prosecutions, which occurred between July 2014 and July 2015, and which amounted to about $90,000 in fines.

In the most costly prosecution, Clutha Lea Ltd was fined a total of $40,500 for discharging dairy herd effluent in breach of a regional plan rule.

DR and PJ Hannah Ltd, the sharemilker on the dairy farm, was also fined $13,365.

The ORC's director of environmental monitoring and operations, Scott MacLean, said the breaches that led to the fines were discovered as part of the council's routine inspection work.

''Prosecution is the last resort and the ORC would prefer not to have to undertake such action. However, unfortunately in some cases, other enforcement options are not appropriate for the level of offending,'' he said.

Cr Anderson argued for a different approach.

''Rather than prosecuting people and have them ending up with a criminal prosecution, take a combined approach with some other agencies, maybe DairyNZ, Fonterra, Federated Farmers, and use the money to fix the problem.

''If you're getting prosecuted $40,000, plus $13,000, for a pool of effluent in the middle of a paddock that had no effect on a waterway, and you get a criminal conviction, I really question if that warrants that,'' he said.

And there was a perception among farmers that the regional council was not being even handed in its approach to environmental prosecutions.

''I come across it all the time when I'm talking to farmers. They read that QLDC (Queenstown Lakes District Council) discharged on a number of occasions raw sewage into Lake Wakatipu . . . because of a breakdown in the system,'' he said.

''And there was no punitive action seen to be taken about that.

''Farmers look at that and say `Are we being picked on?'.''

QLDC chief executive Adam Feeley said in an email prosecutions should be undertaken against polluters for ''something that they did which was within their control''.

''A landowner, even one with a large amount of land like a farmer, has control over their property. In contrast, QLDC manages over 400km of pipes which are used by over 29,000 residents and over 3million visitors a year.

At any given moment, someone can put things into the network which creates a blockage and subsequent overflow; or dig up and damage the network,'' Mr Feeley said.

He also noted that steps had been taken by the council to stop the polluting.

''Since 2013 14, our spills into water have reduced from 11 to three in 2014 15 and there have been none since July 1 this year. We believe we are doing everything we reasonably can to manage this risk.''

The regional council was unable to respond to the Otago Daily Times' request for comment on the matter. Information the regional council did provide showed that in 2014 15, Clutha dairy farmers paid $162,450 in fines.

Waitaki dairy farmers paid $24,920 in fines over the same period.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

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