Farmers fined $28,000 for effluent discharge

Farm owner Francis Nettleingham, and his son John Nettleingham, the farm manager, pleaded guilty at the District Court of Tauranga last week to discharging dairy shed effluent to land where it entered a tributary of the Aongatete estuary.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council prosecuted the two men for the effluent discharge of dairy shed effluent that occurred on at their Aongatete farm on 13 October 2021. The farm operates as a small calf-rearing enterprise, milking about thirty cows to feed the calves. Both men were fined $14,000 each.

Judge David Kirkpatrick says in his ruling that a relatively simple system for diverting stormwater and cowshed effluent to appropriate destinations was not operated properly.

“There does not appear to have been any fault or problem with the elements of the system, only with the way in which the defendants used it.”

BoP Council compliance manager, Alex Miller, notes that the Aongatete estuary has high cultural and ecological values.

“Everybody has duties and responsibilities to manage their dairy shed effluent to avoid unwanted pollution entering the environment.

“Regardless of the scale of the farm and the dairy operation, farmers need to put the design, operation, maintenance and inspection of their effluent management systems at the forefront of their work,” Miller says