Record fine for dumping into river

A businessman who deliberately dumped waste into the Manawatu River has been hit with what is believed to be a record fine more than $180,000.

The penalty is thought to be the biggest handed down under the Resource Management Act.

Kenneth Thurston was found guilty on five charges of discharging milky-white wastewater with a "distinctive meaty smell" from Mainland Meats, at Longburn, into the Manawatu River in 2006.

He was also convicted on three charges of discharging effluent from a dairy shed on to land in 2007 and 2008.

The offending was described as calculated, cynical and deliberate, motivated by the costs Thurston was facing to lawfully dispose of the waste.

Judge Brian Dwyer sentenced Thurston in Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

Thurston and his company, Tawera Land Co Ltd, were ordered to pay $183,900 in fines and investigation costs. The maximum available penalty was a $200,000 fine or two years' imprisonment.

At his trial in February, Thurston, who defended himself, offered to drink the waste water to prove he was not polluting the environment, but the offer was declined.

Thurston could not be contacted last night.

Horizons chief executive Michael McCartney condemned Thurston's actions and welcomed the court's decision.

"He was discharging meat contaminants straight into the waterway and he couldn't care less about the people he affected. This kind of behaviour deserves the level of punishment that Judge Dwyer delivered."

Mr McCartney said the offending was completely intentional and showed a blatant disregard for the environment.

Horizons senior investigator Greg Bevin said the judge recognised Thurston had attempted to mislead council staff, who found evidence of substantial fatty orange residues at a drain edge and on plants.

"In my experience this would definitely be the worst example of a business owner's breach of the Resource Management Act in our region and is certainly at the top of the environmental offending scale."

Last year the army launched an investigation into whether soldiers were exposed to cancer-causing asbestos after a training exercise near a dilapidated building on Thurston's Longburn property.

The building should have been demolished by council order nine months before the army exercises.

In November, Waikato company Wallace Corporation and two of its employees were fined more than $120,000 for illegally dumping toxic waste at a building site near Morrinsville.

Exide Technologies was fined $30,000 in June 2007 for breaching lead emission limits at its Petone battery-recycling plant its second resource consent breach.

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