A Northland farm owned by a government agency has been fined $20,000 for illegally discharging effluent on to land.
Landcorp Farming, a state owned enterprise which owns a dairy farm at Takou Bay, pleaded guilty in the Environment Court this week to two counts of discharging effluent onto land in a manner which could contaminate water.
The Northland Regional Council prosecuted the company after an inspection in October 2006 found two irrigators and a pump were broken which led to effluent being discharged into a wetland area and also into a spring-fed watercourse.
The court was told the effluent from the farm's dairy shed was found to be overflowing from a sump and pools of effluent were found on the land.
This had been caused because two irrigators which distributed the treated effluent were not rotating or moving across paddocks.
Water samples revealed high levels of contamination, the court was told.
Wayne McKean, who represented the regional council, said in the past the company had been spoken to about its effluent disposal systems.
In 2002, the farm and its manager received an infringement notice and the property had obtained poor rankings for effluent disposal during subsequent inspections.
Landcorp lawyer Alastair Sherriff said the company took its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously.
The company had identified problems with its effluent disposal and was in the process of addressing those when the prosecution was brought.
Mr Sherriff said the company had spent more than $200,000 overhauling its systems and regional council inspectors were now satisfied that effluent was being discharged appropriately.
Landcorp had no previous convictions in its 20-year history and Mr Sherriff asked Judge Laurie Newhook not to blemish that record and to discharge the company without conviction.
But Judge Newhook rejected that argument, saying a discharge without conviction would send the wrong message.
However, he noted the company's previous good record and the steps it had taken since the incident.
Judge Newhook convicted the company and fined it a total of $20,000. Ninety per cent of the fine must go to the regional council.
