Green stream has council seeing red

Waikato Federated Farmers president Andrew McGiven says council staff “are willing to listen and provide advice and this is a resource that I wish more farmers would use”.

He was responding to a council report of a stream running green with effluent from two separate sources on an Otorohanga dairy farm.

“The council is concerned that one of the discharges to the stream appears to be ongoing and deliberate,” says investigations manager Patrick Lynch.

The contamination was found in the stream west of Otorohanga two weeks ago after a tip-off.

“We do not usually report this kind of incident until after it has been through a court process,” says Lynch.

“However, what we found this time is of real concern. We have many farmers doing the right thing by the environment in our region but some don’t seem to care.”

McGiven was notified by the council last week.

“I am extremely disappointed and frustrated by this farmer’s actions which have brought the dairy industry into disrepute, especially now that we are under so much scrutiny with the election around the corner,” he told Dairy News.

“Waikato Federated Farmers does not condone or tolerate this type of behavior.

“I can only hope the actions of these few laggards do not tarnish or subvert the achievements of the many thousands of farmers making their farms more environmentally friendly and sustainable every day.

“Though these individual actions are upsetting, overall the dairy industry is making great progress and if regulation and prosecution don’t force these people from our industry then peer pressure will if they don’t improve their systems.”

Lynch applauds the person who gave the council good intelligence about the pollution.

“This person had noted that a stream that normally runs clear was running green over several days, particularly early in the morning.  Our incident response team on Friday morning were at the stream at first light. They observed the pollution in the stream and tracked it back some distance to its source.

“We will launch a formal investigation and it is likely enforcement action will follow.”