Landscapers fined $140k

A landscaping firm has been fined after it let a “black odorous substance” flow into the waterway near its Eves Valley site Azwood Ltd pled guilty to a total of 21 charges brought against it by Tasman District Council for various breaches of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), after its commercial production of compost resulted in polluting nearby waterways, which drain into the Waimea Estuary in Nelson – an important habitat for threatened plant and bird species.

Azwood managing director Brook Brewerton was named as a defendant, as was landowner and consent holder Fergus Brewerton. Eighteen of the 21 charges arose directly from the five discharge incidents and three were laid against Brewerton solely after three breaches of an abatement notice requiring him to cease the unauthorised discharges from the storage pond.

Five discharge incidents

Three of the five discharge incidents related to spillage from the storage pond, one related to discharge via two flow paths from the storage pond and one related to discharge by way of diversion of a groundwater spring or seep.

Judge D P Dwyer’s notes on sentencing detailed how Azwood obtained a retrospective resource consent in May 2022 to store up to 15,000m3 of compost material, including green waste and manure to be stored on-site in open-air stockpiles.

“The resource consent was granted on the basis that wastewater (including leachate generated by the composting operation) was to be contained in a closed system using clay-lined pits and a clay lined storage pond,” said Dwyer.

“Wastewater in the pond was to be recycled by application to the compost stockpiles as well as being used for dust suppression and vehicle washing.”

On 14 November 2022, Nelson Council received a complaint that a “black odorous substance” was f lowing into the Eves Valley Road watercourse.

Following the complaint, the site was inspected twice, water samples taken and an abatement notice issued.

Serious ecological effects

Despite the abatement notice, water discharge was detected again on 8 December 2022, 31 May 2023 and 28 August 2023 and sampling showed the discharge “resulted in serious adverse impact on the instream ecology for up to three kilometres, which is likely to have resulted in fish and invertebrate kills”. The offending was also responsible for localised pollution of groundwater.

Additionally, test results obtained on 15 November 2022 downstream of the site were “very highly contaminated with concentrated leachate”, in which most typical forms of stream life could not survive. There were also samples taken which contained E.coli concentration equivalent to that of raw sewage or concentrated animal effluent.

Systemic failures in management

In sentencing, Judge Dwyer found that Azwood suffered from several systemic failures in management of composting and waste process – including:

• No systems to measure waterflow into the storage pond or monitor water level and volume.

• Failure to inform the site manager of two flow paths or escape routes for water from the storage pond.

• The storage pond’s capacity was 1,750m3, not 5,400m3 as specified in the retrospective consent.

• Modelling results indicated that if the storage pond had its intended capacity, the 15 November discharge may have been avoided, and other spillages reduced in volume.

However, Dwyer also criticised the retrospective consent, obtained in May 2022. “The defendants acted in the honest belief that they were entitled to establish the activities and infrastructure, which they did, and the plainly inadequate retrospective consent [...] effectively approved the infrastructure and the processes which were already in place.

“To my mind, those factors diminish the defendants’ culpability to some extent, although the failure to accurately identify the capacity of the storage pond remains a black mark against all three defendants and a real level of culpability attaches to them.”

Azwood was convicted on all charges and fined $144,375, following a 17.5% discount as a result of its guilty plea and past good conduct.