Forestry management company PF Olsen has been hit with one of the largest fines imposed for environmental pollution after debris collapsed into streams in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
The company was fined $80,000 in Tauranga District Court this week following a landmark court ruling that allowed the prosecution to proceed.
Large amounts of sediment and forestry rubbish slid down ridges and into valleys and streams following three days of heavy rain at Waiotahi forest near Opotiki in April 2008.
Environment Bay of Plenty, which brought the prosecution, said the fine was the largest ever awarded in a case it had pursued for breaches under the Resource Management Act, and it hoped the fine would act as a deterrent to others.
In sentencing, Judge Jeff Smith described the offending as a very serious matter.
The company had failed to heed numerous warnings from the regional council about the instability of the logging debris, the judge said.
"I am not prepared to accept it was bad luck."
In determining the amount of the fine, Judge Smith took into account the company's guilty pleas and the $250,000 worth of remedial work that it had carried out since the breaches.
P F Olsen had also carried out a review of its management process when dealing with high-risk sites, such as those present at Waiotahi.
In a landmark ruling last year, Tauranga District Court said Environment Bay of Plenty had the right to decide whether to pursue the case as an infringement, which would incur a small fine, or as a prosecution in court involving a heavier penalty.
PF Olsen argued that it should not be pursued in court because Environment Bay of Plenty was entitled to deal with it as an infringement.
Environment BOP chairman John Cronin said the regional council had not taken the decision to prosecute lightly but because the offences were serious.
"This was a serious issue and the fine amount appropriately reflects the seriousness of the crime," Cronin said.
"We hope that the prosecution and subsequent fines will act as a
deterrent to other companies."
PF Olsen chief executive Peter Clark said the incident occurred on
some of the steepest and most erodible country in the world during
a localised one in 20 year downpour.
"While forests do a great job at minimising erosion during a 25-30 year growing phase, unfortunately the steep slopes are exposed during the harvesting phase until a new crop of trees gets established - usually a period of five or six years."
Clark admitted the building of roads and skids required to carry out harvesting exacerbated the risk and that special skills and care were required to cope with such storms.
"Fortunately in this case no long-term environmental harm was done."
The company and others in the forestry industry were now working with the regional council on expectations around harvesting and sediment control.
He hoped the "prosecution would not put investors off planting trees on steep erodible hill country in the Bay of Plenty and elsewhere".
"NZ needed more trees on such land, not only for soil protection but also to help offset carbon emissions from other sectors if we are to improve our national carbon account balance."
The fine was one of two hefty punishments handed out this week for offences under the Resource Management Act.
Morton Estate Wines was fined $50,000 in Hastings District Court for breaching a ban on taking water from a river and for extracting more water than it was entitled to under its resource consent conditions.
