More farms in the Bay of Plenty are illegally discharging effluent into waterways.

The latest Dairying and Clean Streams Accord shows 10 per cent of farms monitored in the 2009/2010 season were not complying with effluent discharge rules.

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This is an increase from nine per cent of farms the previous season.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council's group manager water management Eddie Grogan does not consider the one per cent increase a significant rise.

'The increase of non compliant farms by one per cent is not a significant change in our view,” says Eddie.

'What is more important is that the number of fully compliant farms has improved.”

The government is threatening to intervene if regional councils don't do enough to stop dairy farmers illegally discharging effluent.

'Our council is taking firm action with all instances of non-compliance that we find,” says Eddie.

'We are working with industry on initiatives so that all farms are compliant and we achieve our common objectives.”

Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers president John Scrimgeour says the majority of dairy farmers in the region are complying with the rules.

'A lot of the minor non compliance issues are just ticks and crosses they are not seriously doing anything wrong,” says John.

'They have maybe not filled in all the boxes.”

There are 650 dairy farms in the Bay of Plenty, but only 364 were checked.

Of those monitored, the number of farms complying with discharge rules increased from 76 per cent in the 2007/2008 season to 79 per cent of farms in the latest results.