Waih\u012b dairy farmer Keith Torrens has been convicted and fined $39,000 after unlawfully discharging dairy effluent that posed a significant risk to groundwater.<\/p>\n
The fine was imposed by Judge Sheena Tepania in the Tauranga District Court after Torrens pleaded guilty to a charge under the Resource Management Act following a hearing in November 2025.<\/p>\n
The conviction relates to a farm inspection in October 2023, after Torrens had already been issued with an abatement notice for breaching dairy effluent rules, according to a sentencing decision released this week.<\/p>\n
During the inspection, compliance officers identified two unlawful discharges into the environment \u2013 one from the dairy shed and another caused by over-irrigation. Both were considered to present a significant risk to groundwater contamination.<\/p>\n
The court heard the farm had limited effluent storage capacity, increasing the likelihood of irrigation occurring in unsuitable weather and soil conditions.<\/p>\n
In a media release this week, Waikato Regional Council compliance manager Patrick Lynch said the case highlighted the importance of adequate infrastructure and sound management.<\/p>\n
\u201cDairy effluent systems need to be fit for purpose, robust and carefully managed to avoid environmental harm,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, Mr Torrens had purchased an effluent storage bladder some years earlier but had never installed it, despite an abatement notice and formal warning for previous environmental breaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge Tepania described the offending as careless and said Torrens had an ongoing responsibility to ensure appropriate infrastructure was in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs he had purchased a bladder, it makes no sense to the court that he would not install it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to an agreed summary of facts, Waikato Regional Council officers first identified the issue during an aerial monitoring operation on March 22, 2023, when effluent ponding was observed around a stationary irrigator at the Waihi Beach Rd property.<\/p>\n
A subsequent ground inspection confirmed effluent had been over-applied within a paddock. Ponding was recorded at up to 4m by 3m and 25cm deep, with a larger affected area measuring about 20m by 2m at a depth of 8cm.<\/p>\n
Samples analysed by Hill Laboratories showed high contaminant levels consistent with dairy effluent.<\/p>\n
Torrens told officers his farm manager had a broken foot and may have been relying too heavily on the stationary irrigator.<\/p>\n
An abatement notice was issued, instructing him to stop the unlawful discharge. However, a follow-up inspection on October 26, 2023, found further evidence of effluent contamination.<\/p>\n
While no active discharge was observed, officers detected dark brown sludge and liquid with the visual and odour characteristics of dairy effluent at a stormwater diversion outfall.<\/p>\n
They also identified a recently irrigated paddock where effluent had pooled and flowed about 60m downhill through a natural depression and under a fence into a neighbouring paddock.<\/p>\n
Samples taken during this visit recorded extremely high levels of Escherichia coli, ranging from 13 million to 19 million colony-forming units per 100ml.<\/p>\n
The court heard the farm\u2019s effluent sump would typically fill after two to three milkings, contributing to the over-application of effluent, which resulted in ponding, runoff and the presence of older effluent in farm channels.<\/p>\n
During sentencing, Judge Tepania applied a two-stage sentencing approach before imposing the $39,000 fine. The court ordered that 90% of the fine be paid to Waikato Regional Council, with court costs of $143 and solicitor fees of $113.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waih\u012b dairy farmer Keith Torrens has been convicted and fined $39,000 after unlawfully discharging dairy effluent that posed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-462754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}