A Waikato farmer has been hit with a nearly $100,000 fine over the "entirely avoidable" unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment on his farm near Hamilton.
Wayne Maurice Clarke was convicted and fined $97,500 by Judge Melinda Dickey in a decision released by Huntly District Court on October 15 following successful prosecution by the Waikato Regional Council under the Resource Management Act.
In September 2025, council officers inspected Clarke's 170-cow dairy farm in Te Kōwhai and found "significant ponding" of dairy effluent after being irrigated onto already saturated soils, the council said today in a media release.
Officers found the effluent infrastructure on the farm was inadequate and lacked proper storage and management oversight of irrigation practices.
The council's investigations team leader Evan Billington said the unlawful discharge had been "entirely avoidable".
"Despite decades of ownership and management by Mr Clarke, insufficient investment had been made in effluent infrastructure and systems to ensure effluent was managed sustainably," he said.
"It was concerning that no one had oversight of effluent irrigation over a three-day period leading up to this incident, despite wet weather and soil conditions."
The prosecution followed repeated warnings for environmental violations over a nine-year period.
"Between 2015 and 2024, the council issued Mr Clarke with an abatement notice, six infringement notices and five formal warnings for environmental breaches," Billington said. "Despite these actions, he has failed to improve his system or practices."
Dickey said Clarke's conduct was "highly careless".
"I do so in the context of his sustained failure to prevent effluent discharges at the farm, despite significant council intervention and repeated advice that the farm’s effluent system was inadequate and required upgrading," she said.
"The offending was entirely foreseeable and could have been avoided if Mr Clarke had complied with his environmental obligations in a timely manner.”
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