The vast majority of Southland dairy farmers are following the rules, the annual Environmental Compliance Monitoring Report has found.
The report summarised the activities of Environment Southland's compliance monitoring and enforcement and technical teams throughout the Southland region.
The range of significant non-compliance dropped this year from 4.1% to 1.9%. Regulatory committee chairman Cr Neville Cook said that indicated the vast majority of dairy farmers in the region were "stepping up to the mark" when it came to consent compliance.
All dairy farms were inspected, with a total of 941 effluent discharge consents. Monitoring was interrupted by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak but, through a mixture of aerial and on-site inspections, staff were able to complete a similar number of inspections to the previous year.
