Judge ‘mystified’ at company’s failures

 The charges against J and J Watt Limited include illegally disturbing the beds of a watercourse and a stream, and disturbing the bed of a wetland.

The case, brought by Waikato Regional Council, mostly concerned events between May 2010 and May 2013, at the farm near Leamington. The company also breached a council abatement notice in February 2014.

Hamilton District Court was told that council staff inspecting the farm on February 20 last year had discovered recent earthworks and soil disturbance in and around watercourses that ultimately lead to the Waikato River. The company had previously obtained resource consent to carry out re-contouring works in a gully containing a small but locally significant wetland. However, Judge Craig Thompson found that the company did not do what it was supposed to do.

“I am slightly mystified that the company …sought and obtained an appropriate consent – but then completely failed to take account of what the consent actually required,” he says.

“It was careless, inattentive and irresponsible in my view.”

According to the Waikato Regional Council, the result of the offending was significantly increased sediment loads in the stream flowing through the farm. The stream flowed for about 700 metres from the site of the offending to the Waikato River.

Acting investigations manager Derek Hartley also condemned the company saying “This is a case where the company applied for a resource consent and then effectively commenced works without having regard to any of the conditions. Consents are a mechanism to ensure that adverse effects that threaten the environment are managed,”