An Environment Court judge has imposed further penalties on dairy farmers in Otago for illegal discharges of effluent.
Judge Gordon Whiting has ordered three South Otago farmers to pay fines and costs totalling $43,000.
They are the first of 16 prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council for effluent offences in that area during the past dairy season.
The judge also imposed fines totalling $16,500, as well as costs, on two other dairy farming operations, in Maniototo and West Otago.
The Graeme Lowe fellmongery in Dunedin and Silver Fern Farms' Mosgiel plant were also fined for breaching their discharge conditions.
