Piggery owner fined over effluent

The owner of an intensive piggery at the centre of an animal welfare storm last year has been fined for breaching environmental standards.

Former Pork Industry Board director Colin Kay was fined $23,500 in the Environment Court at Palmerston North yesterday for discharging effluent to land without consent at his 200-sow piggery in Foxton, from April 2008 to September 2009.

The effluent had the potential to contaminate groundwater and breached two sections of the Resource Management Act, though no evidence of contamination was found.

Kay and his company NK Ltd were sentenced on the same charge but were treated as one by Judge Brian Dwyer, who fined them $11,750 each.

Judge Dwyer said Kay had consent for his effluent to be transported from Foxton to Levin and dispersed on farmland there. The system worked well until April, when the company that was transporting and dispersing the effluent pulled out because it was no longer financially viable.

The owner of the dispersal site refused to let another company do the work, so Kay began filling two unused effluent ponds on his Foxton property.

When winter rain caused the ponds to overflow, Kay instructed staff to dispose of the effluent over a section of the property, despite knowingly breaking the rules and his staff expressing concerns, Judge Dwyer said. "There can be no dispute that this offending was deliberate."

Prosecution lawyer Evan McCaughan said Kay had a previous conviction for effluent mismanagement at his larger 2000-sow piggery, south of Levin.

That piggery, in Kuku Beach Rd, made headlines last year when animal welfare organisation Open Rescue and comedian Mike King broke in and supplied media with footage of seemingly stressed animals. A public outcry sparked a review of a welfare code governing pig farming, which is due to be completed this month.

Kay's farm was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by government inspectors.

- © Fairfax NZ News