Appeal likely over sediment runoff conviction

THE operator of a defunct Lawrence mine plans to appeal a conviction ordering him to pay $85,000 in fines and costs for sediment runoff into a waterway.

Maruia Mining Ltd and director John Alan Roberts were sentenced in the Dunedin District Court yesterday for breaching section 15(1)(b) of the Resource Management Act.

Judge Brian Dwyer ordered the company and Roberts to jointly pay a fine of $60,000 and $25,000 towards investigation costs to the Otago Regional Council, which brought the charges against them.

Judge Dwyer said there were ‘‘serious systematic failures’’ which included a ‘‘high degree of carelessness’’.

Remediation of the site required by its land use consent appeared not to have been completed, which would have lessened the discharge, he said.

Roberts said after the sentencing he planned to appeal the decision to the High Court.

It is the company’s third conviction for environmental degradation in three years.

The charges relate to the discharge of sediment into a tributary of the Waitahuna River, to which the defendants pleaded not guilty.

A regional council senior environmental officer noticed discoloured water in the tributary of the river on April 30, 2018, and took photos and tube readings of what he considered to be a discharge.

Because of darkness he revisited the river the following two days and saw again the water was discoloured.

He returned to interview Roberts on July 10, 2018, and found a discoloured discharge exiting the mine site.

The defendants said the sedimentladen water was not generated by the mining activities, but from land situated to the east of the site access way where Maruia did not undertake mining or land disturbance activities.

Maruia began mining the site in 2015.

In his judgement Judge Dwyer said he was ‘‘satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt’’ the runoff water picking up sediment across the open mining areas made a contribution to the discharge of sedimentladen water from the culvert in the days in question.

Mining has now stopped at the site and the company is retreating from the land.

Prosecution lawyer Jamie O’Sullivan said there was the need for a strong penalty as a deterrent to other similar operations in the region.

The company was ‘‘negligent’’ and acted ‘‘recklessly’’, she said.

Counsel John Shingleton said there was no firsthand evidence showing how much of the sediment came from the mining site.

The landowner intended to plant trees over the mining site, to which Roberts was contributing, he said.

‘‘I would have thought from a council’s point of view this was a very satisfactory outcome.’’