A Bay Of Plenty Dairy Farm Business Has Been Fined $40,000 After Dairy Effluent Ended Up In Lake Rotorua

A Bay of Plenty dairy farm business has been fined $40,000 after dairy effluent ended up in Lake Rotorua. Chlorofield Limited was sentenced in the Environment Court at Tauranga after it pleaded guilty to a charge of discharging dairy effluent on to land that may enter water. The Bay of Plenty Regional Council says the effluent ponded in a paddock and flowed overland into the Waiteti Stream before entering Lake Rotorua about four kilometres downstream from the farm property. The 114-hectare dairy farm is on Dalbeth Rd in Hamurana, about 3.5km west of Lake Rotorua. The defendant was milking 260 cows when effluent from the cowshed was irrigated on to a paddock via a travelling irrigator which was not fitted correctly. The illegal discharge into the stream was identified after a complaint was made to the regional council.