Lengthy court case results in $70,000 fine

A Waikato farmer has been convicted on two charges and fined $70,000 in Te Awamutu District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment and contravention of an Abatement Notice relating to an incident on a Waitakaruru dairy farm in September 2020.

Douglas Villers Torr was sentenced by District Court Judge Brian Dwyer on Tuesday (12 December 2023) following a defended hearing in November and a failed application for a discharge without conviction.

His conviction on two charges under the Resource Management Act was as a result of a prosecution taken by Waikato Regional Council.

Responding to a complaint on 12 September 2020, council officers conducted a compliance inspection at Torr’s farm property and found him in the process of pumping out the contents of his effluent pond onto a paddock using a stationary irrigator. He told the officers he had been irrigating effluent in the same paddock for a number of days.

Mr Torr was causing significant ponding of thick effluent sludge and liquid over a wide area. This activity posed a threat of contamination to groundwater and also contravened an Abatement Notice that had been served on Torr in 2017 following an earlier dairy effluent related offence.

“This has been a particularly disappointing case,” said Waikato Regional Council Compliance Manager Patrick Lynch.

“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.”

Images: Ponding of effluent following irrigation.