A Waikato farmer must pay $70,000 after he unlawfully dumped dairy effluent into a paddock, breaching a 2020 abatement notice on a Waitakaruru farm.
Douglas Villers Torr was sentenced last week after an investigation into his activities on the farm in September 2020, the Waikato Regional Council said in a statement.
Torr was found pumping the contents of his effluent pond into a paddock using a stationary irrigator.
"He told the officers he had been irrigating effluent in the same paddock for a number of days," the council said.
The pumping caused "significant ponding" of thick effluent sludge and liquid over a "wide area" — posing a "threat of contamination to groundwater".
Torr had also been served an abatement notice in 2017 for an earlier effluent-related offence.
"This has been a particularly disappointing case," Waikato Regional Council compliance manager Patrick Lynch said.
"Mr Torr has simply not accepted that his actions posed a real risk of contaminating the environment.
"He ignored the very clear warning he had been given in 2017 and then required a lengthy court case, where expert witnesses were needed, to give evidence to establish this risk."
After a hearing in November and a failed application for discharge without conviction, Torr was sentenced on two charges under the Resource Management Act on Tuesday. He was fined $70,000.
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