$3k fine for waste dump

A company that dumped thousands of litres of used processing water and tallow into a drain that flowed into Napier’s Ahuriri Estuary has been fined $3000.

On Monday, Liqueo appeared in the Environment Court in Hastings before Judge Craig Thompson, where the company was fined for admitting to the unconsented discharge.

According to a court summary of facts, Liqueo had operated a tank storage and processing facility at Mersey St in the Napier area of Pandora since September 2015.

On November 20 last year, Liqueo staff were engaged in draining ‘‘used processing water’’ from the bottom of a 45,000-litre storage tank on the site.

The processing water contained a percentage of oils and fats, including tallow. Tallow is a hard, fatty substance made from rendered animal fat.

Liqueo had upgraded its trade waste/stormwater system on the site in 2016.

Due to a ‘‘malfunctioning valve’’ in the system, about 4500 litres of used processing water were discharged into the Tyne St stormwater drain, a tidal drain which flows into the estuary on outgoing tides.

The initial discharge occurred on an incoming tide, although during the morning the tide turned, increasing the flow of contaminated water into the estuary.

Liqueo staff were alerted to the discharge by other industrial users in the area about 1.40pm that day – six hours later.

‘‘Immediate steps’’ were taken by staff to identify and rectify the cause of the discharge.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council staff and Liqueo worked together in a clean-up effort to minimise damage.

A floodgate on the Tyne St drain about 115 metres to the north of the site was closed, and booms were put in place at the point of discharge from the Tyne St drain into the estuary.

Suction trucks arrived at the site from 2.15pm and began to extract the discharged processing water from the stretch of the Tyne St drain between the site and floodgate.

In total, the suction trucks extracted 28,000 litres from the drain.