Manawatu businessman Ken Thurston has failed to evade $174,250 in council fines for repeat waste water and dairy effluent pollution.

The first batch of offending occurred in 2006 at the former Longburn meat works near Palmerston North after the the city's council started charging for waste water treatment.

One year later, at a farm at Boness Road, Feilding, dairy effluent was found spread across a swathe of land, with a repeat offence one year after that.

In May last year, Mr Thurston and his company Tawera Land Company were ordered to pay a total $187,545 in fines, expenses and court costs.

The fines - $174,250 – are the largest ever imposed under the Resource Management Act.

Mr Thurston appealed to the High Court that the fines were excessive.

His lawyer argued that previous good character and the fact that Mr Thurston later built a $2.6m pipeline from the Longburn plant to the council treatment facility should have been taken into account.

High Court judge Forrest Miller ruled that the Longburn offence was an “unusually clear case of polluting for profit” and that sufficient discounts had been made.

He was satisfied that the correct overall amount had been charged.

Justice Miller’s decision, released today, comes at a time of high political tension over Federated Farmers’ refusal to sign an accord to clean up the Manawatu river.

Mr Thurston has since resigned as a Tawera director.

Thurston’s future uncertain
The fate of Mr Thurston’s associate companies is currently up in the air.

NBR reported on Monday that 12 Manawatu farms, understood to be owned by Tawera Land Company, were anticipated to be put up for sale this week.

Tawera is one of 12 companies, most of which list Mr Thurston as a director, that owe nearly $14m to South Canterbury Finance under a cross guarantee deed.

Now that South Canterbury is also in receivership and covered by a $1.775b taxpayer bailout package, it is understood that the status of the Tawera mortagee sale has changed.

More details will be available in the property pages of tomorrow’s print NBR.