A war of words has begun after Environment Bay of Plenty accused dairy farmers in the Rotorua Lakes area of poor effluent compliance.
They claimed 50 per cent of the sites checked had serious compliance issues and a number of abatement notices had been already served.

However, Rotorua Federated Farmers president Neil Heather has responded saying EBOP had been selective in the information they have released. He says because EBOP failed to disclose that the figures were based on initial inspections only, they gave a misleading picture. Neil says when the farms that were non-compliant on the initial inspection were re-inspected only four of them were still non-compliant.
However, EBOP chief executive Bill Bayfield has hit back at Federated Farmers saying effluent management compliance should be a priority for farmers at all times.
Meanwhile, in a seperate matter, last month Environment Waikato was pleased with an unusual sentence handed out by Judge Jeff Smith in the Hamilton District Court against a Te Kuiti dairy farmer. Judge Smith fined Bennett Watson $3000 and ordered him to take out an advertisement apologising to the community in the Waitomo News after he and his staff over applied effluent to their paddocks, leading to some entering a tomo and related waterways. The judge also ordered Bennett pay court costs and a solicitor's fee and attend up to six farmer field days to speak of his experiences in the hopes it will deter others.