Fined for illegally burning waste material

A man who tried to burn up to 600 tonnes of unlawfully dumped waste on his Templeton property in April 2010 has been fined $5000.

In sentencing Deane Hogg, Judge Jane Borthwick said that the fine should be regarded as a deterrent to others from offending in a similar fashion, particularly where offending was motivated by the need to avoid business compliance costs.

In her sentencing notes Judge Borthwick outlined that the waste material had been dumped by Mr Hogg’s tenants, without his knowledge, and his efforts to get them to remove it had been unsuccessful.

Judge Borthwick said while Mr Hogg admitted the offence and participated in a restorative justice conference with neighbours in attendance where they expressed a great deal sympathy for his situation, there was a need to deter others from offending in a similar fashion.

The Judge noted that while the offending was deliberate, panicked and misguided on the part of Mr Hogg, it could not be said that it was out of total disregard for the environment.

Two rules under the Natural Resources Regional Plan were contravened by Mr Hogg, this included a rule prohibiting the discharge of contaminants to land and also breaching the rule for outdoor burning.

The fire burned for close to 12 hours and needed Fire Service intervention to extinguish, smoke from the burning continued to be discharged into the air for five days following. It cost Mr Hogg close to $45,000 to remove the pile of debris and to lay top soil over the area.

Environment Canterbury Resource Management Director Kim Drummond said that this sort of offence seriously affected air quality and caused harm to the soil and groundwater.

“The burning of waste materials such as metals, corrugated iron, rubber, plastics, and both treated and untreated wood can seriously affect the health and wellbeing of individuals and have major short and long term effects on the environment.

“It is important that land owners dispose of rubbish materials to the correct facilities and only burn materials after referring to the regional plan or calling Environment Canterbury first, so that this doesn’t happen again,” said Mr Drummond.

“This case is a harsh reminder that landlords need to be careful to whom they rent their land, and the need to keep an eye on activities on property they owned,” he said.