A Northland dairy farming couple has been fined nearly $70,000 for breaching animal effluent regulations.
Mark and Kylie Stanaway have been sentenced in the Environment Court in Whangarei for discharging effluent and silage leachate into tributaries of the Wairoa River.
The couple, who farm on a Ruawai property, pleaded guilty to the 16 offences in 2009.
The sentencing judge said it was a classic case of a farmer running a herd that was too large for the property's effluent system to manage.
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