A Bay of Plenty dairy farming company and its director have been fined $37,000 for discharging effluent from a pond where it entered a roadside drain.
The Opotiki farm's director has also been ordered to do a dairy farm effluent management course.
Riverlock Farms and farm manager Geoffrey Thomas Brown were sentenced in Rotorua District Court, which heard that there had been two previous prosecutions for effluent overflows at the farm.
Judge Jeff Smith said the penalty for the most recent breach would have been higher had there not been significant improvements to the farm's effluent system, including three new storage ponds.
