The Otago Regional Council (ORC) joint working party on stock truck effluent is urging transport operators, and their farming customers, to lift their game during the next few weeks to help keep southern roads and waterways effluent-free.
Many sharemilkers are shifting cows around Otago from late April until June.
ORC chief executive Peter Bodeker says the amount of effluent spilled on the roads while these stock were being transported posed unacceptable risks for cars and motorcyclists, as well as nearby waterways which would be the final repository for the effluent.
“ORC has run extensive campaigns over several years encouraging farmers to stand stock off green feed before transporting them, and to let truckies know about seven effluent disposal sites around the region,” Bodeker says.
The council is also seeking support from the New Zealand Transport Agency and other councils in the region to help install additional disposal sites in some areas where the distance between existing sites was too great.
“We are concerned that despite this work the situation has not improved as much as it should have. We’ve responded by establishing a stakeholders group to provide a more effective collaborative solution,” Bodeker says.
Project coordinator Selva Selvarajah says Federated Farmers, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), NZ Police, the Road Transport Forum (RTF) and the Road Transport Association (RTA) were working together to find solutions to the problem.
Federated Farmers representative Stephen Korteweg said all farmers involved in transferring stock must ensure they were properly prepared by feeding dry feed (hay) for at least two days prior to shifting. If this is not possible then they need to be stood off green feed for at least eight hours before cartage, to minimise muck spilling onto the roads.
Road Transport Association representative Alan Cooper said the word had gone out to trucking companies that they had to maximise the effluent storage on stock trucks and use the disposal sites.
ORC receives many complaints from motorists whose vehicles are covered in effluent when following behind trucks where drivers have not emptied their effluent pans before starting their journey or at a disposal site.
Acting southern district road policing manager, Steve Larking, says the mess these discharges create could impair motorists’ vision, make roads slippery, and make driving dangerous, particularly for motorcyclists.
Bodeker says a map detailing the stretches of road where effluent spillage was a regular problem has been given to the police, who will be patrolling the areas.
