Wastewater spill fine leaves mayor fuming
The Matamata-Piako District Council has been convicted and fined $49,875 for discharging wastewater, containing sewage, into a river.
But the mayor says he is angry with the result and regional council should work with farmers and councils more over discharges rather than prosecuting so much.
On December 21, 2018, a tree fell on to a wastewater pipe in Morrinsville, a natural event that caused a wastewater pipeline break, sending 100,000 litres of untreated wastewater into a gully then on to the Piako River.
But the Matamata-Piako District Council’s response to the incident on the last working day before the 2018 Christmas holiday was not fast enough, the Waikato Regional Council said.
On Friday during an Environment Court hearing in Hamilton, Judge Melanie Harland fined the district council in response to its guilty plea at a February hearing.
In passing sentence, Judge Harland considered the culpability of the council as between moderate and moderately high, given the responsibilities that local councils have for their wastewater management.
Judge Harland was surprised at the council’s response, saying that part of ‘‘responsible management’’ is to seek the best advice available in the circumstances.
In this instance, she said, the relevant expert was present with equipment that, if used, would have solved the problem.
In Judge Harland’s view, it was apparent, from the confusion and lack of knowledge at the incident by the council’s staff that there was a failure of more senior management to ensure managers were properly trained and aware of what to do in an emergency.
She further commented that ‘‘had proper training been provided the outcome could well have been very different’’.
The judge adopted a starting point of a $70,000 fine, before giving a discount for the guilty plea and co-operation of the council during the investigation.
Waikato Regional Council chairman Russ Rimmington acknowledged there were costs to local and regional ratepayers and he was ‘‘disappointed’’ that the council had been placed in a position of having to take a ‘‘prosecution against another local government authority’’.
However, he said, the council must ‘‘play with a straight bat’’ for all those who breach rules.
‘‘Enforcement needs to be appropriate to the scale of offending no matter who is responsible – a company, an individual or even a local authority,’’ he said.
While Matamata-Piako mayor Ash Tanner has taken the blow, personally, he said he is ‘‘pissed off’’ about the final result. He stands by his council staff and doesn’t believe someone should be ‘‘prosecuted for a natural disaster’’.
‘‘I can’t get my head around why one council would prosecute another council, both funded from the same ratepayers from an incident where a large tree falls and breaks a wastewater pipe,’’ Tanner said.
‘‘In my opinion, it baffles me why we couldn’t have a debrief a few weeks later to go over any hindsight issues with how we dealt with the repairs.
‘‘Although the fine imposed is $49,000, and we are covered by insurance, the true cost including staff time by both councils is something like over $100,000.
‘‘If that’s an appropriate use of ratepayers’ money then I must be missing the point. We are meant to be two councils working together, not little school kids in a school yard.’’
He said the district council had lost a ‘‘great manager over this’’. He has taken a job in Australia. ‘‘I also feel sorry for some farmers that are getting hammered by WRC all the time . . . Maybe it’s time that the regional council works with them instead of prosecuting them all the time.
‘‘Prosecution is fine in certain situations where people are reoffending or have done it deliberately – I have no problem with that – but if it’s accidental, the regional council really need to look at themselves.’’