Waihī logging company fined $112,500 for stream pollution, breaching environmental standards

Slash and sediment polluted a stream in Waihī for over a year due to Seaview Logging Limited's actions. Photo / Waikato Regional Council

By Libby Kirkby-McLeod of RNZ

Slash and sediment polluted an important stream in Waihī for over a year – and despite six inspections and two abatement notices, a logging company refused to change its behaviour and continued to cause environmental damage.

Forestry company Seaview Logging Limited and company director Graeme Howard Savill, who carried out the harvest, were convicted and sentenced by Environment and District Court Judge Lauren Semple in the Huntly District Court in April on five charges of breaching National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry and fined $112,500.

After the conviction, the defendants appealed the sentence to the High Court, however, this week that appeal has been abandoned and RNZ can now report the original sentence.

The summary of facts showed that on October 6, 2022, Waikato Regional Council enforcement officers visited the 18ha plantation forestry block on Thorn Rd, Waihī to inspect the harvest operation.

The council found several breaches of the National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry, including a lack of stormwater and water runoff control, exposed areas of soil which had not been stabilised, and unmaintained and ineffective erosion and sediment control measures.

This was the first of six inspections over 2022 and 2023 that all found sediment and erosion control measures were deficient in protecting the environment from discharges.

In her sentencing indication, Judge Semple said during each visit to the site, the council told the defendants that the sediment and erosion control measures were unsatisfactory to prevent the discharge of sediment to waterways.

“Rather than work with the council to ensure that appropriate sediment and erosion control measures were put in place and appropriately maintained, Mr Savill determined that such measures were unnecessary or could be undertaken in a perfunctory manner or at a later date.”

Judge Semple also wrote that Savill was an experienced operator who knew, or should have known, that effective sediment and erosion control mechanisms are a fundamental component of forestry harvesting operations.

“I accept the prosecutor’s submission that the offending was deliberate and sustained. I find the defendants’ actions to be highly careless bordering on reckless and the culpability in this matter to be high.”

Waikato Regional Council’s acting regional compliance manager Evan Billington said the Waitaheke Stream, which was affected by the failure to control sediment and erosion, should be protected.

He said the effects of sediment and forestry slash on waterways were widely known.

“The harvest and earthworks management was done very poorly, with Mr Savill failing to take his responsibilities seriously, despite the intervention of council officers,” Billington said.

– RNZ