Poor management of a travelling irrigator led to dairy effluent entering a stream and landed two farmers in court facing big fines.
Grobecker Farming and Mary Allen Farm both pleaded guilty to a charge of discharging dairy effluent into a stream in Waimana in the EasternBay of Plenty and were fined a combined $77,000.
Sharemilker Stefan Grobecker and his wife are the two directors of Grobecker Farming. The two directors of Mary Allen Farm, which owns the 87-hectare property, were not named in court.
Environment Court Judge Sheena Tepania’s judgment said that, on October 25, 2023, a person at a neighbouring property noticed the Matatere Stream was discoloured and that ponded dairy effluent was flowing into a farm drain that led into the stream.
The stream flows into the Tauranga River about 2.5 kilometres downstream from the farm, and that river joins the Whakatāne River about 18.5km further downstream.
The witness phoned Grobecker, who immediately moved the travelling irrigator away from the drain. He did not take any steps to manage the effluent already flowing into the drain, and did not contact the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
A different witness notified the council and a compliance officer came to take samples. Liquid effluent was audibly running into the drain.
The next day, a compliance officer returned to the farm and saw ponded effluent still visible from the previous day’s discharge.
The officer spoke to Grobecker, who said there were no standard operating procedures for the farm’s effluent irrigation, and he kept loose records of which paddocks had been irrigated and when. Record-keeping was not required under the consent.
Grobecker told the officer he immediately got on his quad bike to take a look when he was told of the discharge. He saw the irrigator was at the end of its run and moved it. There was “obvious ponding” of effluent, and the drain was green.
An abatement notice was issued that day, which remains in place.
The regional council’s lawyer, Hayley Sheridan, said it was fortunate the fast-flowing Matatere Stream had quickly diluted the contaminants. The ecological impact on the stream had been minimal, but it was nonetheless a freshwater environment that ought to be protected from the discharge of contaminants.
Sheridan said contributing factors to the discharge included irrigating in unsuitable weather and soil conditions, the end of the irrigator’s run being too close to a drain, a lack of monitoring, insufficient training and the equipment’s lack of fail-safes.
She said both defendants were culpable and were “careless at a moderate to high degree”.
Mary Allen Farm’s directors, one of whom lived near the Waimana farm and the other who lived in Kaikōura, said Grobecker was contracted to run the farm and they were “just in the background”. They did not train Grobecker on operating the effluent system and believed he already knew how to do it.
The Kaikōura-based director said she wouldn’t know how to run an irrigator.
A travelling irrigator spreading effluent. Photo / file
Mary Allen Farm’s lawyer, Derek McLachlan, said the two directors did not stand to benefit from “cutting corners” and had taken responsibility. They had since upgraded the effluent system and had worked with Grobecker to ensure he understood the upgrades. Policies were upgraded and record-keeping was improved.
McLachlan said he accepted the discharge had increased the likelihood of adverse events occurring, but there had been no quantifiable evidence of any harm caused.
The primary cause of the discharge was Grobecker’s “poor judgment”, he said.
Grobecker Farming’s lawyer, Lana Burkhardt, acknowledged the cumulative impact of such discharges, but said the impact from this incident was minimal.
Grobecker had been at the farm for four or five months and did not think the previous night’s rain was enough to saturate the soil.
He had been experiencing chronic stress and fatigue at the time and his judgment may have been clouded. His offending was careless, but to a lesser degree, she said.
Judge Tepania said that, while the environmental effects had been minimal, they had clearly breached the resource consent.
Mary Allen Farm was the owner and resource consent holder, so its directors had the responsibility to ensure the farm was compliant.
