JOE DAWSON
The Hawke's Bay Regional Council is set to introduce aerial surveillance and random inspections of dairy farms in an effort to stamp out harmful resource consent breaches.
The steps are being taken following farm inspections by the regional council leading to three prosecutions.
Three Hawke's Bay dairy farmers have dates in the Environment Court in November for a variety of resource consent breaches.
That follows the upholding in the Napier District Court last week of two regional council infringement notices against a farmer who discharged dairy effluent on his land.
The farmer was fined $750 for each infringement notice, and the council awarded $1000 in costs. The maximum fine for infringement notices is $1000.
A prosecution in the Environment Court holds much stiffer penalties, including a maximum fine of $200,000, $10,000 a day for an ongoing offence or two years' imprisonment. The council was prosecuting a further three farmers for similar offences, the team leader for compliance at the regional council, Bryce Lawrence, said.
One farmer was being prosecuted for discharging effluent without resource consent, one for applying too much nitrogen to his land, and another for letting oxidation ponds overflow into a waterway.
Mr Lawrence said the offences to be heard in the Environment Court were not at the top of the scale.
The prosecutions arose from routine inspections. Most dairy farms were visited by council officers once a year.
But, Mr Lawrence said, new inspection methods were likely to be introduced soon, which should make it more difficult for breaches to go unnoticed.
"This year we are looking at introducing random visits and aerial surveillance, which is something that has been very revealing throughout other parts of the country," he said.
The number of breaches this year had given the regional council cause for "concern" at the lack of understanding some farmers appeared to have about the impact certain land uses could have on the wider environment if resource consent conditions were not followed.
Mr Lawrence said that cluster of breaches was a sad indictment on the level of awareness among some dairy farmers.
"A few dairy farmers do not appear to understand that nitrogen in groundwater and surface water can have adverse environmental and health effects, despite national media and industry coverage on the issue over the past year."
The council had taken enforcement action against 10 per cent of approximately 50 dairy farms inspected in the past year, he said.
While the problem was not endemic it was concerning. "Having three prosecutions against farmers in one week is not that good."
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Hawkes Bay Today
'It hurts the people who are already grieving': Thousands worth of rebuild material stolen from Hawke's Bay school and pre-school
Nuhaka School and a pre-school on-site have suffered a series of break-ins and thefts.