Dairy farmers set for crackdown

A compliance crackdown will hit Wairarapa dairy farmers this summer.
Al Cross, Greater Wellington Regional Council environmental regulation manager, said the authority is set to come down hard on Wairarapa dairy farmers breaching their resource consents after a 146-farm regional audit last summer yielded "a poor result".
"We didn't have a good run last season when you look at the number of non-compliant operations we found and that was just a warning of what's to come," Mr Cross said.
"This is a clampdown and with the level of non-compliance last year we need to let all the farmers know and be extra careful.
"We will be focusing on the serious end of non-compliance and we're hoping for a much improved level of compliance.
Mr Cross said the compliance "season" and the clampdown would start in October involving up to six compliance officers on the ground at any one time with a routine inspection of dairy sheds and discussions with either consent-holders or farm owners running from one to two hours.
"Operations will be inspected and checked against consent conditions and consent holders encouraged to comply," he said.
"Although there hasn't been a massive increase in the number of consents issued in Wairarapa, herd sizes are increasing and some consent-holders may need to re-apply if their existing consents do not comply."
He said 136 Wairarapa farms were included in the audit completed in summer and autumn and all the non-compliant farms 30 per cent were located in Wairarapa.
A further 21 per cent of the farms audited were mostly compliant and 49 per cent were fully compliant.
The maximum penalty for infringement is $750, Mr Cross said.
He said the audit sparked 38 advisory notices with many asking farmers to correct the non-compliance of their dairy effluent systems, 13 letters seeking an explanation and seven infringements.
Mr Cross said there are now 246 dairy farms in the greater Wellington region.
"Non-compliant dairy operations impact on ground and surface water and on waterways and the impact on the environment for everybody can be significant."
Mr Cross said there are also seminars and workshops planned through the upcoming compliance season outlining consent-holder obligations and solutions.
Horizons Regional Council compliance officers in Manawatu started a crackdown on dirty dairying last month and aim to cut the non-compliance rate among farm effluent disposal systems by 85 per cent.
Manawatu-Wanganui regional council compliance manager Alison Russell said her staff are inspecting as many as 100 dairy sheds in the region.
Meanwhile a $37,500 fine, the largest ever for a single dairy effluent discharge, was imposed in the Environment Court at Napier this month on Crafar Group's Taharua Farm, 40km southeast of Taupo.