Southland's regional council has bowed to pressure from transport groups and road users and announced it will install six stock truck effluent disposal sites in the region.
Last year the council prosecuted three truck drivers for allowing effluent to spill onto the region's roads.
The Road Transport Forum responded by saying the council had obligations under the Resource Management Act to provide effluent disposal sites for stock trucks, but until last year there were none in the region.
Regional council principal planner Rachel Millar says effluent spillage onto roads has become a real problem over the past few winters, especially when cows are moved to and from winter grazing.
She says work will begin soon on three of the six $200,000 effluent disposal sites, and the council is in negotiations to renew agreements that were made last season, for three other temporary sites.
