Taranaki Regional Council has no regrets over hefty fines Robin Martin © RNZ / Robin Martin
The Taranaki Regional Council has no regrets about taking prosecutions that resulted in $600,000 in fines being dished out in the Environment Court this week.
Water services company Citycare and the New Plymouth District Council were fined $112,000 and $66,500 respectively for their part in spilling 1.5 million cubic litres of human effluent into the Mangati Stream in Bell Block the equivalent of half the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The January 2019 sewage pump station failure - which lasted for more than nine hours also killed hundred of fish and eels.
Taranaki Regional Council has no regrets over hefty fines
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Heavy fines handed down for environmental offending
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Tallow also discharged onto Ngāmotu Beach and into the sea. The beach was closed to the public for at least three days, and the nearby Moturoa School was closed for a day. Hundreds of residents were also unable to flush their toilets for several hours. It was heard in court that the company lacked adequate infrastructure to prevent the spill from occurring and did not have an alarm system to alert it to the uncontrolled discharges. The company was also without the appropriate trade waste permit from the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC), for which an infrastructure upgrade is likely to have been required as a safeguard against uncontrolled discharges such as the one which occurred.