Fonterra's senior management have been slammed by Environment Court Judge Jeff Smith after the dairy giant was fined for repeated effluent discharges in the Bay of Plenty.

In addition to fines of $174k for six effluent discharges from the Edgecumbe dairy factory, Judge Smith requested the presence of Fonterra's central north island regional operations manager Peter Bird at sentencing in Tauranga District Court.

Fonterra's Edgecumbe plant. Photo: File.

'I have asked for you to appear because I want the comments to be understood as being relating to the management and directors of Fonterra as much as they are to the company itself,” said Judge Smith.

While four whey irrigation discharge offences were separate from the two discharges from the Edgecumbe factory, the judge says they seem to represent a decision by Fonterra to prioritise productivity over the environmental consequences.

'It is regrettable that a director from the company, or one of the senior management team responsible for the decisions for capital investment, has not attended this hearing,” he added.

'It is difficult enough for this Court to impress upon farmers their obligations to comply with the Act for the sake not only of the future of dairying in New Zealand, but for the sake of the community.

'But when Fonterra is found to have failed to invest in such a basic way, this task is made more difficult and this is a significant disappointment to this court.

'It is most unfortunate that, when this industry was at its height, there was a failure to invest. Now, of course, the difficulty for the company is it is having to make these investments at a time when the returns are not as high.”

Fonterra's lawyer told the court it will cost $1.3 million to fix faults in the irrigations system alone.

The company pleaded guilty to six charges – four of them involving irrigator effluent discharges.

The first dates from September 2014, when council officers at a neighbouring farm noticed effluent pooling beneath a Fonterra irrigator.

Fonterra continued to use irrigators without pressure cut-off devices, GPS trackers, monitors and all of the other equipment that the court routinely requests parties who are charged with offences to install.

'I say that I am amazed - and I use the word amazed - that this did not occur ten years ago when these issues were clearly highlighted by the court in a number of decisions,” says the Judge.

'Fonterra should be an industry leader, not a laggard in regard to the adoption of appropriate technology to avoid environmental effects.”

He says the four whey-water irrigation discharges are examples of a continuing systemic failure by Fonterra to address its obligations in terms of its resource consent and its environmental obligations to the wider community of New Zealand.

The two plant discharge offences were on March 8, 2015 and April 2, 2015.

The first involved the creamery plant, when failed product was diverted to a stormwater sump.

On April 2, failed permeate was diverted to irrigation, but a staff member increased the flow rate following a shift change.