Taranaki Regional Council has laid charges against Silver Fern Farms over an ammonia leak from its Hāwera beef processing plant in February.
The council's resource management director Fred McLay will make no comment while charges are before the court, but confirms charges have been laid in the Hāwera District Court.
The ammonia leak into Tawhiti Stream and resulting tuna (eel) deaths were devastating for South Taranaki's Ngāti Ruanui iwi, CEO Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said.
This was especially sad because the stream and the Tāngāhoe River it feeds are usually full of tuna (eels) and had just recovered from a similar industrial accident about 25 years earlier.
When tuna started dying Ngāti Ruanui put a rāhui on Tawhiti Stream, and South Taranaki District Council put up signs warning against taking food or swimming.