Dairy discharge compliance levels high
Tasman District Council compliance staff surveyed the discharge practises of 37 dairy farms during the 2009-10 dairy season and found that most complied with the conditions of their consents.
“The farms surveyed had matters of interest to compliance staff, were due for specific follow-up inspections or they had requested an inspection,” said council compliance officer Kat Bunting in her report to TDC’s environment and planning committee meeting last month.
“Each farm was assessed against resource consent conditions for the discharge of treated dairy effluent to water, or the discharge of dairy effluent to land as a permitted activity under the Tasman Resource Management Plan (TRMP).”
No sampling of waterways or soils was undertaken as part of this study. Only the point of discharge from the pond systems (as required by the conditions of consent) was sampled, and Ms Bunting’s report did not assess effects of water quality, amenity, or aquatic ecology.
Seventy-three per cent of the farms were found to be compliant, 19 per cent had minor non-compliance issues, and 8 per cent (three farms in total) had significant non-compliance issues. The minor non-compliance cases were described as technical matters that had no adverse effects. One example was the failure to ensure that a copy of the resource consent conditions is displayed in a prominent position on the wall of the milking shed.
In some cases significantly non-complying farms presented more than one issue that was graded as being significantly non-compliant. These issues included the discharge of raw effluent onto land where it subsequently entered water, the discharge of effluent directly into water, severe ponding of effluent on the ground surface, and the breaching of an enforcement order.
“As always, there is a risk that some non-compliance will surface,” said Ms Bunting in her report. “It is expected that the ongoing commitment for best farm practices will be reflected in a continuing high standard of compliance in Tasman.
“However, there continues to be a select few who choose not to comply with the effluent disposal rules. Unfortunately a lot of compliance staff time was spent dealing with these continuing offenders through the courts. A considerable amount of time and effort was spent conducting thorough investigations and preparing and submitting the facts of each case to the courts. The farmers involved all have a long history of non-compliance and their continued disregard of the effluent rules and the environmental consequences has left council no option but to proceed to the courts.”
Ms Bunting said that inspections will begin again in earnest in the 2010/2011 season that starts in September. Council compliance staff aim to complete a full assessment of all 145 farms across the district.
“Staff will be looking at both dairy effluent disposal and Clean Streams Accord performance and those farmers with a poor compliance history will again receive extra focused attention.”
From TDC minutes
