Pollution charges filed in time
A major winemaking company in Marlborough has failed in its bid to have pollution charges thrown out over a deadline dispute and will go to trial.
Babich Wines and its viticulturist John Sowman have denied charges of discharging the winemaking byproduct grape marc onto land where it could leach into waterways.
An anonymous complaint sparked the court case, one of the first of its kind pursued by the Marlborough District Council, which laid charges the day after the November earthquake.
Babich Wines and Sowman’s lawyer, Jonathan Eaton QC, argued the charges were ‘‘time-barred’’, meaning the council missed the legal deadline in pressing charges and the charges should be ditched.
The Resource Management Act required the council to lay charges within six months of when the offending ‘‘became known, or should have become known’’.
Eaton said at an October hearing that period should start from the anonymous phone call on May 12 last year, which meant the council missed the deadline by five days.
A neighbour said there was slime in their groundwater well and they believed it was from grape marc on Babich Wines’ Waihopai Valley Rd property.
Environmental protection officer Reuben Fergusson inspected the site five days later, having been busy with other investigations. He believed the clay lining of the grape marc leachate pad was leaking, but needed more evidence to be sure.
An independent scientist reported a link between the grape marc pond and the slime, and the council decided to prosecute.
The charges were laid on November 15, but could not be electronically received by the court until two days later because the courthouse was closed after the November 14 earthquake.
It reopened on November 17, but Judge John Hassan accepted the charges were laid on November 15.
The council’s lawyers, Antoinette Bezier and Jackson Webber, said the investigation could not commence until a council compliance officer had visited the site to make sure the complaint was based on fact.
Judge Hassan said in his decision, released on Monday, the council had no reason to believe the complaint without its own investigation.
‘‘A council would not sensibly take an anonymous complaint as soundly based. There are always possibilities that anonymous complainants are either acting out of ill will or simply on unreliable assumptions.’’
He found that the six-month period started on May 17, so the charges were laid the day before the limitation period ended. The case would proceed to a judgealone trial, with a nominal date on December 8.
Three other parties charged with illegal discharge of grape marc and leachate appeared for Environment Court hearings in Blenheim on Monday.
Grapegrower Michael Gifford pleaded not guilty to six charges of the illegal discharge of grape marc, and one charge relating to an abatement notice, and appeared for a case review hearing.
Yealands Family Wine founder Peter Yealands denied two representative charges of illegal discharge of grape marc leachate, and his son’s company, GrowCo, denied four.
They appeared at a pre-trial hearing on Monday, having elected a jury trial, and were remanded to a hearing on a date yet to be decided.
After the charges were laid, Yealands and GrowCo announced plans to offer a ‘‘complete solution’’ to the industry’s grape marc issues, building a 1.6-hectare grape marc storage pad north of Ward and a dam to store leachate.