Kiwifruit grower John Rhys Thomas will undertake 400 hours of community work after he plead guilty to four offences of discharging chemicals into waterways and the air, contaminating them.
The 63 year old was also ordered to relinquish involvement in any business that handles or trades wastes unless consent from the court was given.

Two of the offences related to contaminants (copper ammonium chloride) being discharged from broken chemical drums at John's Te Puke fertiliser plant and the other two offences related to the open burning of 100 polypropylene bags that had been used to store elemental sulphur there.
At sentencing, Judge Jeff Smith says it was 'one of the more serious cases” he had seen and that in normal circumstances there was no question in his mind that a substantial fine – in excess of $100,000, or a custodial sentence would be appropriate.
However, he had to 'balance the very serious effects on the environment and the potential for injury or loss of life, and on the other hand the circumstances of the offender”.
John was declared bankrupt earlier this month, has health issues and suffered a personal loss.
'It is not a question of his willingness to pay, but his ability to pay.
'Therefore the most sensible option is community work, where he can give back to the community and improve or benefit the environment in some way.”
Also taken into account were the early guilty pleas, John's cooperation throughout the investigation, the outcome of a positive restorative justice conference and that he had acknowledged the harm he had done.
With support from his family, John had agreed to pay $1600 in reparation to neighbours whose health was affected by the smoke from the burning polypropylene bags.
Environment Bay of Plenty Chairman John Cronin says the regional council considered that the offences were serious and that industrial site operators needed to give their environmental responsibilities a high priority regardless of other factors affecting site operation.