Bay of Plenty landlords who piped human waste from an “overflowing” home septic tank to a drain flowing into the Kaituna River for years have been fined.
Couple Yonita Gwen Harpur and Bernard Dale Hull were each fined $6000 and ordered to undertake 75 hours of community work after being sentenced in the Environment Court at Tauranga on May 13.
The pair earlier pleaded guilty to two charges each of breaching the Resource Management Act and the Natural and Built Environment Act.
The charges laid by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council related to ongoing discharges of waste from a domestic septic tank on the couple’s tenanted property between January 1, 2019 and May 15, 2023.
Two of these charges related to the defendants’ contravening abatement notices issued by a council enforcement officer in December 2022.
According to Judge Brian Dwyer’s sentencing notes released to the Bay of Plenty Times, the regional council received a complaint in December 2022 that sewage from the defendants’ property was being pumped into a drain that flowed into Kaituna River.
During the first inspection, officers found the domestic septic tank on the property was “full to overflowing” with effluent ponding on the ground beside the tank.
Human waste from the septic tank was carried by a flexi pipe laid on the lawn, then by about 25 metres of PVC piping running over the property boundary into a grass and swamp area that led to a farm drain, then into Kaituna River.
Samples showed “massively elevated” faecal coliform levels, E.coli, suspended solids and ammoniacal nitrogen in the ponding and discharge points, and “highly elevated” levels near the farm drain.
Abatement notices were issued to the defendants in December 2022 requiring them to stop discharging wastewater onto land, pump out the septic tank system, remove the PVC pipe and clear ponding.
When a council officer inspected the property again in May last year, a new septic tank had been installed but the pipes still “discharged to the drain”, with ponding at the outlet.
A further inspection in October found the pipes now emptied into a “man-made pond” on the property.
The council said septic waste surface ponding posed “significant” health risks including skin and gut infections, and could also threaten the survival of fish and other aquatic life.
Kaituna River is home to indigenous fish species such as eels, common smelt and koura, indigenous flora and fauna such as blue ducks, and spawning whitebait.
Flowing from Lake Rotorua over Okere Falls to the Ongatoro/Maketū Estuary and out to sea at Te Tumu near Maketu, it is highly valued by iwi, traversing ancestral home areas of Tapuika, Ngāti Whakaue ki Maketū, Ngāti Pikiao, Waitaha and Ngāti Mākino.
Council lawyer Hayley Sheridan said the defendants’ offending spanned nearly four years and created environmental and health risks.
The defendants’ lawyer Emma Stewart said her clients “strongly refuted” that their offending was deliberate, and submitted their “carelessness” came from not seeking appropriate professional advice. Lacking financial resources, they tried to fix the problems themselves.
“It was not a deliberate disregard for the law or environment standards.”
Judge Dwyer said this was “obviously deliberate” offending with the septic tank set up discharge to the farm drain.
“The fact that the system needed fixing should have been abundantly apparent … and continued for nearly four years.”
Judge Dwyer, said the normal overall penalty would be a fine of $71,250, however, he fined each defendant $6000 and ordered 75 hours of community work given their financial position, guilty pleas, past good character, and lack of previous convictions.
He also ordered the defendants to pay solicitor costs and $130 court costs for each of charge.
Judge Dwyer convicted and discharged them on four further charges stemming the October inspection.
He suppressed the publication of the address where the offending occurred.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.