Posted: 21 October 2005
Firm fined $10,000 for illegal stream excavation
An Environment Court judge has fined a large Northland contracting firm $10,000 for its “negligence” while excavating a Whangarei riverbed.
United Carriers Limited pleaded guilty to illegally excavating part of the Te Waiiti Stream on or about 3 November last year. It had been prosecuted by the Northland Regional Council under the Resource Management Act and was sentenced in Whangarei this month.
In sentencing notes released recently, Judge LJ Newhook said the case reinforced “the importance of defendants obtaining resource consents and taking close account of the condition attaching to them, particularly where the defendant is a civil contracting company”.
Judge Newhook said that in May 2002 United Carriers Ltd had been granted resource consent by the Northland Regional Council to carry out major earthworks to establish its new heavy goods transport depot at Kioreroa Rd.
Judge Newhook said some stream diversion works in the stream had been carried out as allowed for under that consent, but in November last year Regional Council staff discovered further works being carried out in the stream “beyond the parameters of the resource consent”.
“This was for the purpose of allowing the defendant company to extend its construction to places where the stream had originally run.”
The Judge said it appeared a small to moderate amount of rock and sediment (600 to 1000 cubic metres) had been discharged into the stream and the extent of the damage inflicted was “reasonably small”.
However, he said the environment of the stream had to be regarded as of some importance.
“As to the deliberateness of the offence I have already found that there was a considerable degree of negligence attaching to the approach taken by this defendant which is an experienced civil contractor. I accept that there has been an early guilty plea.”
Judge Newhook said he also accepted the company’s strong expression of remorse “although I am a little tempted to regard that expression as being as much in connection with the difficulties that the defendant says it might experience in connection with its civil contracting work in future, as with the events that happened on 3rd November 2004”.
He said he was prepared to regard the company as having “by and large” a good record, but was not prepared to discharge it without conviction in this case.
He convicted and fined the company $10,000 – 90 percent of which must be paid to the northland Regional Council. He also ordered court costs of $130.