{"id":12275,"date":"2014-09-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/open-country-dairy-fined\/"},"modified":"2014-09-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T12:00:00","slug":"open-country-dairy-fined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersweekly.co.nz\/news\/open-country-dairy-fined\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Country Dairy fined"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

The problem occurred during last year\u2019s spring flush. when milk supply was high.<\/p>\n

Residents from the Waharoa community, near Matamata, complained to the Waikato Regional Council that the odour was causing physical effects such as nausea, vomiting, and an inability to sleep.<\/p>\n

Some complainants spoke of having to adapt their lifestyles by keeping door and windows shut, not hanging out washing, leaving Waharoa to escape the odour, and keeping children inside.<\/p>\n

The council received 45 complaints from local residents during 16 days in October and November last year.<\/p>\n

The company told council investigators the odour was a result of infrastructure failures at the factory that saw larger-than-normal volumes of waste end up in the wastewater treatment pond.<\/p>\n

The pond struggled to cope and the odour developed, with the situation taking some time to recover.<\/p>\n

In a recent sentence released from the Hamilton District Court, Judge Melanie Harland commented that the effect on residents of the odour was profound and continuous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a case where the defendant was slow to upgrade or provide adequate infrastructure, but it is a case which highlights the need to provide a buffer for unexpected infrastructure failures despite the infrastructure itself being fit for purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dairy supply company Open Country Dairy has been convicted and fined more than $35,000 for discharging objectionable odour from its Waharoa factory.\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t