Matamata-Piako District Council has been fined $67,500 after discharging sewage into a river over a five-day period in 2023.
The case related to an ongoing discharge over the Easter holiday period from the district council’s wastewater treatment plant in Matamata into the Mangawhero Stream, which flows to the Waihou River.
The discharge occurred when there was a failure to turn on key equipment, and then a series of automated warning messages that the system was at critical levels were not responded to.
It was estimated that no less than 2.8 million litres of wastewater was unlawfully discharged into the river, including untreated human effluent, over the five-day period.
The case was taken by Waikato Regional Council following a formal investigation.
In passing sentence at the Hamilton District Court this week, Judge Melinda Dickey said she found the council’s offending “highly careless” and “that multiple alarms were raised, and their being ignored had serious consequences”.
Dickey also acknowledged the significant cultural, spiritual, historical and environmental importance of the receiving waterways.
Matamata-Piako District Council was convicted of a similar crime in 2020, after a wastewater pipe in Morrinsville broke and took two days to be repaired in 2018.
Around 100,000 litres of untreated wastewater, also including sewage, flowed into a gully running 250m to the Piako River over that time, which saw the council convicted and fined $49,875 for unlawful and avoidable discharge of wastewater.