Dam protest in Wellington

ACTION: Greenpeace protest outside ACC in Wellington this morning in opposition to the Ruataniwha Dam. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Six tonnes of dairy sewage has been dumped in the middle of Wellington in a protest by Greenpeace against the Ruataniwha Dam scheme.

The cow urine and other dairy waste - sealed in eight heavy-duty tanks - have been placed across the two main entrances to ACC's offices on Molesworth Street early this morning.

Greenpeace says it's part of an escalating row over the government department's link to the controversial Ruataniwha irrigation scheme.

Critics of the scheme say that large-scale irrigation projects lead to industrial dairy expansion, which leads to increased river pollution.

More than 20-thousand people have signed a Greenpeace petition calling on the government to stop funding industrial scale irrigation, like the plans at Ruataniwha and the Central Plains Water Scheme in Canterbury.

Greenpeace campaigner Kate Simcock says ACC should not be spending millions of tax-payers dollars investing in something that will pollute our rivers through the expansion of dairy.

Kate Simcock says it's part of an escalating row over the government department's link to the controversial Ruataniwha irrigation scheme in Hawke's Bay.

She says ACC looks to invest millions of tax-payer dollars in the Ruataniwha Dam scheme, so they've blockaded ACC with six tonnes of dairy effluent

Kate Simcock says they have no plans to leave until ACC gets the message.