Environment Southland must pay $5000 towards the $7000 of legal costs incurred by a Riverton based transport firm.
The costs were incurred by Euan Shearing Contracting in preparing it’s defence relating to an alleged discharge of effluent from a stock truck.
Environment Southland will also reconsider the use of the Resource Management Act in regard to stock trucks discharging effluent after they were accused of altering the documents of the trucking operator.
A driver for Euan Shearing was pulled over as part of a joint Environment Southland and police sting, and despite a senior constable noting there was no effluent discharge from the truck, the company was sent two fines – one for the driver and one for the company.
A court submission featuring a copy of the compliance form shows ‘nil’ has later been crossed out and replaced with ‘discharge – no tanks on truck.’
Environment Judge Jeff Smith noted that the case was “novel” in that it sought to prove the principle that a discharge of effluent from a vehicle could constitute an offence under the Resource Management Act.
“Rather than seeking a law change to clarify the various issues or seeking a declaration, the regional council used the prosecution device in conjunction with the New Zealand Police,” says Smith.
“It was clear to the Regional Council that such a prosecution was novel and untested.”
Rob Phillips, Environment Southland chief executive, says a legal audit of the council’s compliance processes is still underway, and he would not pre-empt its findings.
Phillips noted that it was significant that Judge Smith had not specifically criticised the amendments that a compliance officer had made to the Environment Southland form which a police officer had partly filled in after inspecting the truck.
“Much has been made in the media of allegations that a staff member had altered a police document, I want to reiterate that this was an Environment Southland form with an Environment Southland logo on the top that both compliance officers and Police used to record information,” he says
Phillips says that animal waste leaking from trucks on to roads remained an important issue that would have to be addressed in other ways, because motorists were rightly upset at being sprayed with effluent.
Action will include establishing a network of effluent dump stations around the region. The Council has set aside funds for the first effluent dump station for stock trucks to be built on a State Highway this financial year.
Last winter there was a noticeable drop in the amount of effluent reported on roads around Southland. Phillips says that keeping roads clear of effluent was not a direct responsibility of Environment Southland’s, and he acknowledged the lead role that the Transport industry and Dairy NZ had played this year to educate farmers and trucking firms.
