Morton Estate Wines Limited was convicted in Hastings District Court today on three charges and fined a total of $50,000.
Two charges related to taking water from the Ngaruroro River, from two separate vineyards during a minimum flow water-take ban in January and February 2009.
The third charge related to taking 11% more water than the consent allowed in a week in January 2009.
Judge Thompson said the reason for the significant fine was that Morton Estate deliberately breached the conditions of their resource consent. Morton Estate was informed of the ban, but had attempted to get permission from the Council to breach their consent and was declined. The company stated they made a risk based business decision as they considered they would receive only a $750 infringement notice, so chose to breach the consent deliberately.
Judge Craig Thompson made the point that every cubic meter of water taken from a low flow stream is a cubic meter not available for other lawful users. Those users include the environment, recreational users and tangata whenua.
Bryce Lawrence, Manager - Compliance with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, said: “The key message from this case is that businesses that rely on water resources need to build resilience into their business strategy if their water supplies are not 100% secure every season”.
“Minimum flows are well known to be a business risk to growers in Hawke’s Bay. Some businesses have factored this into their business plan and have accepted that risk and others have built resilience to limited water by building water storage dams,” he said.
Judge Thompson said he was “not impressed” by the fact that Morton Estate had decided that they were only likely to get a $750 infringement notice for the breach, so choose to breach the ban and accept the consequence. The total level of fines was set to provide deterrence against the “deliberate flouting of a well known restriction”.
Mr Lawrence said “this is the largest fine for a water take related prosecution in Hawke’s Bay and will be significant in comparison to similar prosecutions nationally”.
In another sentencing today in Hastings District Court, Phoenix Holdings Limited was fined $8000 after Hawke’s Bay Regional Council laid charges relating to the taking more groundwater than allowed by their consent during for weeks in December 2008, January 2009 and February 2009. |