‘Babich careless, not reckless’

A winery that contaminated neighbours’ drinking water with poisonous waste has avoided convictions after demonstrating ‘‘extraordinary remorse’’ in a landmark pollution case.

Babich Wines’ new grape marc pad, built to store 100 tonnes of skins, seeds and stems left over each harvest, leaked into the ground contaminating neighbours’ wells in 2016.

Engineering firm Powell Bennett Civil Construction was contracted to build the pad at Babich Wines’ Echelon Vineyard in Waihopai Valley, west of Blenheim, in 2014 with viticulturist John Wayne Sowman.

But nobody tested the pad before it was used and the leachate seeped into three shallow groundwater bores, which provided drinking water to six households.

Three neighbours complained to the Marlborough District Council, saying the water tasted foul, a rotten egg odour was wafting over their homes and there was slime in their water tank.

One household had a sample tested by Hill Laboratories, which found unsafe levels of manganese and iron.

The western end of the pad was lined with clay but the southern end was not lined. An outflow pipe ran to two plastic tanks, which leaked if they overflowed.

Babich lined the pad’s sump with polythene on the council’s advice.

But when officers visited a second time they found marc was being stored on stony ground outside the pad and leachate was spilling over the edge of the pad.

Babich then covered the grape marc with silage wrap, diverted stormwater to avoid the pad and provided clean water to the households affected, two months after the contamination was first noticed.

The council’s tests showed unsafe levels of iron and manganese in the three bores and one also had unsafe levels of arsenic.

Independent environmental scientist Fleur Tiernan said the leachate, which had arsenic at 20 times the drinking water standard, was mobilising metals and transferring into the groundwater.

The council ordered Babich to remove all grape marc and leachate from the property by September 9. The water quality in the bores then started to improve. But drinking water was affected for about 12 months.

Babich Wines plead guilty to two charges of pollution in the Environment Court.

The council’s lawyer Antoinette Besier said it was a stressful time for the neighbours, who were frustrated and angry.

But some families said Babich Wines ‘‘behaved as good corporate citizens’’ in trying to fix the contamination.

‘‘They went out of their way to make personal contact with each of us, and do everything possible to correct the problem.’’

Another family called for more research on safe storage of grape marc and more oversight from council.

Babich Wines’ lawyer Jonathan Eaton QC applied for a discharge without conviction, saying the company showed extraordinary remorse.

If convicted, the company could lose several million dollars in export deals each year, likely forcing the company to downsize, Eaton said.

Chief executive David Babich told the court current distributors had seen the charges online and, at a trade show in Europe, he faced questions about ‘‘polluted vineyards in Marlborough’’.

He described the pollution as a ‘‘disaster and completely opposed to our intended endeavour’’.

Babich, chairman George Green and Bullivant met with affected households and council officers at a restorative justice meeting in August.

At the meeting, Babich agreed to get rid of the pad, pay neighbours’ out-of-pocket expenses of $4485.95, and arrange a workshop about grape marc management to educate the regional industry.

Babich Wines also reimbursed 100 per cent of the council’s costs for analysts and experts and made a large contribution toward other costs.

The company spent about $140,000 in total.

Judge John Hassan said in his sentencing decision the company was careless but not reckless, in failing to check the pad.

He also accepted the impact of a conviction outweighed the seriousness of the crime, given Babich Wines’ clean record, guilty pleas and ‘‘extraordinary remorse’’.

‘‘This is Babich’s first offence, committed out of sound environmental intentions and in a context of ‘new science’.’’

Hassan discharged Babich without conviction on both charges.

The company’s viticulturist John Wayne Sowman’s case was adjourned to March 15 next year.