Dairy farm operators fined over illegal effluent discharge

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Three Bay of Plenty dairy farm operators have been fined a total of almost $89,000 for illegally discharging effluent into a waterway.

All three appeared in Tauranga District Court today.

- Bayfield Farms Limited in Te Puke was fined $35,000

- Rotorua farmer and trustee Mark Stuart Dibley, who admitted the illegal discharge of effluent from his family trust-owned farm, was fined $32,500

- Noema Archie Watene, who operates a dairy farm near Whakatane, was fined $21,440

Judge Jeff Smith ordered 90 per cent of fines to be paid to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which brought the prosecutions against the three offenders.