30 Jul 2010

Farm owners and sharemilker fined for effluent spills

4:24 pm on 30 July 2010

Two Hauraki dairy farm owners and a sharemilker have been fined more than $40,000 in the Hamilton District Court for illegal discharges of effluent.

They were charged in August last year, after a helicopter monitoring programme carried out by the Waikato Regional Council found dairy effluent had overflowed into farm drains on two properties.

The council says the fines should serve as a warning to all dairy farmers, and it advises them to check their effluent systems to avoid prosecution.