Waikato farmer Randal Greenbank and his company, Whakapona Farms Ltd, have been convicted and fined a total of $96,000 for unlawfully discharging effluent into the environment and undertaking unlawful earthworks.
On July 24 last year a proactive farm inspection by Waikato Regional Council staff at the Te Kauwhata property found an effluent storage pond had been overflowing into a nearby waterway and effluent from a travelling irrigator was running into a farm drain.
While at the property, council staff also inspected earthworks being undertaken by the farmer to form a driveway as part of a lifestyle block subdivision.
They discovered the earthworks had resulted in large volumes of soil being excavated with no erosion or sediment controls, resulting in sediment entering two streams. The streams had been diverted and/or the stream beds excavated.
Following another inspection on September 11, council staff again found the travelling irrigator over-irrigating effluent that ran off into a farm drain.