Liqueo storage company fined after waste water spill into drain leading to Pandora Pond

Pollution in the Tyne Street drain leading into the Ahuriri estuary in Napier last year. Photo / File

A bulk storage company has been fined $3000 and ordered to pay $4000 in clean-up costs for an illegal discharge which threatened Napier's Pandora Pond and Ahuriri Estuary late last year.

Scales Corporation entity Liqueo admitted discharging "by-product and yard waste" into a Tyne St stormwater drain on November 20.

Although the drain flowed directly into the estuary the risk was minimised by alert staff of other businesses who managed to close a drain pollution prevention gate and stem the flow.

Although it was thought thousands of litres of tallow and waste water had flowed into the estuary, inquiries did not link the breach to the pollution which led to closures of the popular pond during the summer and warnings for bathers to stay clear of the water after the discovery of unsafe levels of bacteria.

Council resource use manager Wayne Wright said at the time the council had only been alerted by members of the public posting of messages and images on social media, but the spill had been noticed by members of the public several hours earlier.

He said at the time that staff from Lowe Corp and Classic Sheepskins were to be applauded for their response in minimising "the harm this spill may have caused".

Wright was unable to be contacted late yesterday to comment on the outcome earlier in the day in the Environment Court in Hastings, where Judge Craig Thompson also levelled a $5000 fine against Havelock North company Te Mata Mushrooms in an unrelated prosecution over an illegal discharge which made its way from that company's Brookvale Rd property into a local waterway last year.

But the latest odour-level air pollution prosecution against Te Mata Mushrooms remained untested, being adjourned until Friday for an indication of a plea and the possibility of whether a full hearing of the case will be held.

Regional Council group manager regulation Liz Lambert said the fine against the company was "probably lower than we would have expected".