Under council rules, while farmers are allowed to graze stock near waterways, they must not damage or pug the bank or contaminate the waterway.
If those conditions are not met, the council could use compliance procedures to enforce the conditions.
ORC compliance manager Martin King said after the council received the picture and information, a staff member was sent to survey the area by helicopter.
The trip identified ''isolated areas'' that were worth taking a closer look at, he said.
Staff would continue the investigation by visiting the areas identified to assess the extent of the problem.
Water testing along the Taieri River this summer had shown bacteria levels at alert levels four times this summer while at Outram levels had only been high one day.
Fish and Game chief executive Niall Watson said he could understand the sense of frustration that anglers and other river users felt when they came across stock with open access to river bank areas.
He urged people to lodge complaints about each specific instance so the regional council could follow them up and take appropriate action. ''Collectively these breaches of good farming practice have a significant impact on waterway health but they have to be dealt with case by case. This sort of occurrence is still far too common.''
While Taieri River water quality had been affected by agricultural intensification Fish and Game's impression was that the Upper Taieri trout fishery had been improving in recent years, as river banks were progressively fenced off and better farming practices took effect.
The situation had been helped by the dedication of local farmers and others through the Upper Taieri Water Users Group to improve land and water management within the upper catchment. It was also helped by the existence of the upper Taieri wetlands, which buffered the river from the effects of adjacent land use, he said.
