Orchardists fined for water take
Regional council brings five successful prosecutions involving millions of litres
Five orchardists have been prosecuted and fined nearly $200,000 over the last two kiwifruit seasons for illegally taking more than 100 million litres of water.
All pleaded guilty to charges relating to the unlawful takes, Bay of Plenty Regional Council said.
Council regulatory compliance manager Matt Harrex said resource consents provided important protection to the natural environment and the orchardists had ignored this requirement.
“Clamping down on illegal water takes has been a significant focus for regional council for the past 10 years,” he said.“we’ve spent a lot of time working with industry to educate growers that anything above the daily permitted water take requires resource consent.”
He said, for the most part, growers were doing the right thing with more than 1000 resource consents to take water granted over the last decade.
“Depending on variables such as soil, rainfall and field capacity, at least 40 cubic metres of water may be required each day to irrigate one hectare of kiwifruit canopy in the heat of summer.”
This was more than the permitted 35 cubic metres per day.
“Orchards are generally a lot bigger than one hectare, so it’s always disappointing to come across those that are aware of the need to apply for resource consent but have made a conscious decision to take the water anyway,” Harrex said.
In a Woodlands Orchards sentencing decision last year, the judge said the increasing demand for water in the Bay of Plenty was placing pressure on streams, rivers, springs and groundwater.
“[Over-extraction] of groundwater can degrade groundwater quality and reduce water levels in aquifer systems and associated surface waterbodies,” he said.