The irrigation pump was broken and was left to spray effluent into the field between June and October last year. Photo: Supplied
The Waikato Regional Council believes people managing the natural environment like farmers or foresters will no longer be able to run the risk of environmental breaches, in light of increased new financial penalties.
Those who breach the Resource Management Act for offences like polluting waterways will no longer be able to use insurance to pay their fines, due to changes under the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill that came into law last month.
Offenders would face harsher penalties too with the maximum penalty for individuals rising from $300,000 to $1 million, and for businesses, the $600,000 maximum rose to an eye-watering $10m.
Rural insurers like FMG had advised farmers of the change.
The Council's regional compliance manager Patrick Lynch said he believed the changes would be effective in targeting the more serious offenders, but it would take time.
"I think that over time it has to make a difference, in respect of people will have to realise that they just can't run that risk of breaching the RMA because the repercussions are so big, and there's no insurance companies to bail them out in respect to paying fines."
A screenshot of a video taken by Waikato Regional Council staff shows effluent overflowing from a holding tank into a stream north of Te Aroha. Photo: Supplied / Waikato Regional Council
He said anyone working in the environment should take extra care and not cut any corners, due to the more severe penalties.
"The scope for penalty has just absolutely ballooned.
"We'd certainly like everyone out there to take as much care as they can, because the repercussions are so enormous."
But he said it would be interesting how the changes would play out during investigations taken to court.
"I suppose the thought is that it would mean that higher fines are going to get imposed, but we don't know yet what they're actually going to play out like in the courtroom."
Lynch said RMA breaches were "many and varied" across the region, and its main focuses were on compliance in the region's 3,700 or so dairy farms and forestry.
"The dairy sector features largely for us in the Waikato region, purely because of their scale."
He said dairy effluent management was a common offence in the sector, and some were "dragging their heels" on investing in effluent infrastructure.
"There's a lot of work being done in the dairy sector, a lot of improvement, but there's also a long way to go."
He said with the prevalence of forestry in the region too, harvesting impacts and earthworks were the main problem areas, and it was also focusing on environmental effects from horticulture.
Federated Farmers resource management spokesperson Mark Hooper told RNZ it agreed in most cases that it was inappropriate for insurance to cover breaches.
But he said there were situations where farmers or contractors may have been in breach through no fault of their own, and it supported the ability to insure against RMA breaches legal and remediation costs.
However while fines were higher, the maximum term of imprisonment for breaching the RMA reduced from 2 years to 18 months under the new amendment.
Furthermore, a history of non-compliance could now be considered during resource consent applications, and non-compliance could trigger a consent review.
Water discharge rule changes were another key feature of the new bill.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop. Photo: NZME / LDR
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop highlighted thousands of farmers in Waikato alone would face an effective "stop work" order unless changes were made, as they would require new resource consents for on-farm activities.
He said it also received requests for further changes to water discharges from the Tasman District Council, Environment Southland, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Horizons regional Council.
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