Slow progress on dump for stock effluent

While muck from stock trucks continues to get up motorists' noses a Wairarapa dump site is still not on Transit's agenda.
The Automobile Association brought up the issue of effluent from stock trucks fouling and breaking up roads at a meeting of the Wellington Regional Council's Rural Services Committee in March.
It was agreed then that discussions with all parties, including roading authorities, should be organised and aimed at getting the issue of a stock effluent dump back on Transit's list of important Wairarapa projects.
Farmers were to be asked to be aware of the benefits of standing stock before trucking them off their farms.
While in their most recent rural services newsletter the regional council highlighted farmers' responsibilities regarding reducing effluent, at the last minute Transit was unable to attend the consultation meeting organised last month.
A date for another meeting Transit can attend is yet to be arranged, but the issue will be on the agenda at the Wairarapa branch meeting of the New Zealand Road Transport Association tomorrow. AA Wairarapa branch chairman Handley Thomson was at the May meeting and said one of the first questions that was asked was if stock effluent is actually a problem on Wairarapa roads.
"Everyone there agreed that yes, it is," he said.
"We really feel we have to prove to Transit the need we have here for a dump site and illustrate the number of truck movements a day.
"Estimates are of 50 trucks a day going north and 30 south and people are noticing a lot of spills, so it's imperative Transit attends the next meeting."
Wairarapa branch chairman of the Road Transport Association, Phil Cottle, said individual operators continued to deal with the disposal of effluent from their own trucks, but said while transporters had been compelled to "tidy up their acts" the powers-that-be had given them little help.
"The cost of the dump sites and resource consents has meant it's been buried in red tape and stifled by bureaucracy. A site will cost $150,000 a year to run and no council wants to pay for it."
Mr Cottle said the two major reasons for the continued problem were farmers' attitudes and the distance stock has had to travel since local processing stopped.
"What the Road Transport Association is pushing for is the standing time, because if all farmers stood their stock it wouldn't be a problem, but farmers won't do that for some reason."
Mr Cottle said he thought truck firms gave proper notice of pick ups, but farmers needed to recognise their responsibility didn't end when their stock left the property.
"If you go back 10 or 15 years stock didn't have to go so far ? within an hour they were at the freezing works ? but now it often takes three or four hours. Going up the Rimutakas on a rainy day it all runs to the back of the crate and road users get annoyed."
Pinfolds Transport owner Podge Pinfold agreed.
"If everything was done correctly we wouldn't have a problem, if you stand stock they travel better and you minimise effluent," he said.
"It's a co-ordination thing and it comes back to the stock managers and station managers doing their jobs, but we've all got to work together on this because it's not just about the roads ? the works are demanding cleaner stock and wool as well."
A National Stock Effluent Working Group was established in 1997, bringing together industry groups including transporters, Federated Farmers, the Meat Industry Association and Transit, to develop a code of practice offering guidelines on minimising the the effect of stock effluent on New Zealand roads.