Dairy effluent overflowing from one of Warneford Farms' sites near Waimana, which reached the Nukuhou River in 2023. Photo / BOP Regional Council
A longstanding Bay of Plenty dairy farming company has been fined $59,500 after spilling effluent into a river.
Warneford Farms was incorporated in 1970 and owned four dairy farms, as well as about 800ha of dry stock properties.
Court documents show it is owned and directed by married couple Paul and Heather Warneford.
The two discharges occurred on a 170ha farm at Waimana, south of Whakatāne, on November 20, 2023.
The farm is in the upper catchment of the Nukuhou River, the largest waterway feeding into the Ōhiwa Estuary.
Theriver and its tributaries support a diverse range of native freshwater fish species and Ōhiwa Harbour is an area of significant environmental, recreational and cultural value.
Warneford Farms pleaded guilty in the Environment Court at Tauranga on March 17 to two charges of discharging dairy effluent that entered a waterway, and one charge of contravening an abatement notice.
The maximum penalty for each charge under the Resource Management Act is a $600,000 fine.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council prosecution related to unlawful discharges of dairy effluent from a travelling irrigator and through a stormwater diversion system.
The stormwater diversion discharge also contravened a November 2020 abatement notice issued after wastewater flowed into a farm drain and a stream.
Environment Court Judge Sheena Tepania’s sentencing decision said council inspectors found the spills during a routine inspection on November 20, 2023.
One was from a manually operated stormwater diversion system that had been “incorrectly set”.
Liquid effluent flowed along a drain and through settling ponds “choked” with effluent and feed, and “full of thick sludge”.
Liquid was weeping through a pond wall into a waterway connected to the river.
Inspectors found effluent from a partially clogged travelling irrigator pooling in a paddock, with a flow path towards a river tributary.
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Paul Warneford told the council his staff had made an error operating the stormwater diversion system.
He said he had struggled to find an experienced farm manager and the manager had only been on the job for three weeks.
Warneford said he had tried hard to eliminate or minimise the risk of human error.
Remedial measures required by the council after the spill were completed, the judgment said.
The council’s lawyer Hayley Sheridan sought a fine starting point of $100,000, given Warneford Farms’ prior conviction for unlawfully discharging dairy effluent at another of its farms in 2011.
Sheridan said the offending was moderately careless, with inexperienced staff operating a manual system vulnerable to human error, and insufficient monitoring.
She said the council’s environmental scientist found these discharges had a “measurable impact” on water quality in the waterway, and likely had negative impacts on freshwater fauna.
Warneford Farms’ lawyer James Gurnick argued for a $65,000 fine starting point.
Gurnick said the discharges were caused by the farm workers’ failure to operate the farm as required.
He said no specific environmental impacts had been identified, and remedial actions had been taken.
Gurnick said his client’s previous conviction, from a different farm was unrelated to the 2023 offending.
He urged Judge Tepania to give discounts for Warneford Farms’ “concerted efforts to carry out riparian planting and fencing at the farm” and early guilty pleas.
Judge Tepania found the discharges had a “measurable and adverse impact” on the waterway.
“While there was no suggestion that the Nukuhou River was significantly contaminated as a result of these discharges, the court remains concerned about the cumulative effect of offending of this nature … often referred to as death by a thousand cuts.”
As an experienced operator, Warneford Farms should have been aware of its environmental obligations and the risks its manual system could lead to avoidable spills.
“It cannot take a hands-off approach to the extent it did,” she said.
From a starting point of $65,000, Judge Tepania took into account the company’s previous conviction, prior good character and early guilty pleas.
She fined the company $59,500, with 90% to be paid to the regional council.
Warneford Farms was also ordered to pay $143 in court costs and a solicitor’s fee of $113.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.