A Tauranga liquid waste disposal operator fined for resource consent breach at his facility beside the upper reaches of the Waimapu stream is saying he did not pollute the stream – contrary to what is claimed in a BOP regional council press statement.

Tauranga liquid waste removal company Pete's Takeaways was fined $35,000 in Tauranga District Court on Monday, for an overflow from a sludge pond in heavy rain.

'The way it reads is we polluted the entire Waimapu stream,” says Pete's Takeaways proprietor Peter Harford.

'This is not the case. In fact the polluted area was still in the property we lease, and no pollutant was found outside our boundary.

'The stream runs through our property, but within our boundary is where they did their testing. They did not do any other testing anywhere, although I did ask for it.”

The company pleaded guilty in Tauranga District Court in December to three charges under the Resource Management Act, relating to contaminated liquid overflowing from its sewage treatment facility in June 2011.

'They dropped three charges,” says Pete.

'The judge's main concern was nothing to do with the creek being polluted, but that the consent stated I must have enough freeboard in the pond in the event of rain. That's a very hard thing to control.”

He says his sludge dewatering machine was being rebuilt at the time, and the sludge was not as dry as it should have been.

Pete accepts the fine but says the council is picking on small operators.

The Tauranga City council has several sewer overflows each year into Tauranga Harbour and it is not prosecuted.

'How is it they can prosecute a private company, and local authorities can have sewers overflow and they don't prosecute them.

'I did breach my consent and everything else. I didn't like the way EBOP did their report. I'm not comfortable with the fact they are prosecuting the small guys but not looking in their own back yard, and they need to they need to badly.”

In yesterday's press release Bay of Plenty Regional Council Pollution Prevention Manager, Nick Zaman said the liquid waste overflowed from treatment ponds and eventually reached the Waimapu Stream at Oropi.

Pete disputes this saying faecal coliform readings taken in the stream itself had levels well below those required for swimming pools.