Farmer faces dairy pollution fine
A Golden Bay farmer charged with polluting a creek with dairy runoff showed management ‘‘bordering on recklessness’’, a prosecutor has said.
Hayden Pomeroy was in the Nelson District Court for a sentencing hearing on Monday after pleading guilty to charges against himself and the family company, Amberglen Farm Ltd.
The charges, laid under the Resource Management Act, related to the discharge of dairy effluent. The discharge from the Bonniefield farm caused pollution at Swamp Creek, a tributary of the Kaituna River, which eventually runs into the Aorere River.
Tasman District Council lawyer Antoinette Besier said the pollution was discovered in 2016 by council staff, who noticed it 5km downstream from the farm and traced it back. About 250 cows had been left overnight in a standoff pad adjacent to Swamp Creek in heavy rain.
Farm manager Mahesh Jayatilaka, who had faced charges but was acquitted, said the cattle were left there because heavy rain had flooded the underpass used to move them to a more appropriate location. Pomeroy was not on the property at the time of the offending.
Defence counsel Callum Martin argued for a lenient punishment. He said the Pomeroy family had been recognised for their environmental work in riparian planting in the 2010 Tasman Nelson Environment Awards, and were featured in a tree industry publication, which he said showed dedication to protecting the environment.
The farm was at the time a quite recent acquisition by Amberglen Farms Ltd, and was now no longer functioning as a dairy farm.
Martin argued that Pomeroy’s culpability was low-level, as the incident was a one-off in what he called exceptional circumstances.
Besier said the council did not accept this, because many of the contributing issues were easily rectified. ‘‘This is in the upper levels of carelessness bordering on recklessness.’’
Besier said that by the defendant’s own admission, the farm was not set up to adequately manage effluent runoff.
The decision on sentencing has been reserved.