Environment Southland has "had a gutsful" of non-compliance by dairy farmers in the region.
Recent poor compliance dismayed councillors and compliance staff and the council would be taking a "hardline no-excuses" attitude, chairwoman Ali Timms said.
Already this month, officers had found 24 incidents of significant non-compliance, compared with 34 for the whole of May last year.
The message was "just not getting through" and what simply appeared to be poor or indifferent management practices were continuing to cause unacceptable environmental consequences, she said in a statement.
Farmers said they wanted fewer rules, but it was evident that many could not even comply with the current rules, she said.
The industry was judged as a whole which made it difficult for the good performers who told her they were "sick and tired of being lumped in" with the poor performers.
Many dairy farmers saw spending on effective effluent management as low priority, indicating Southland's water quality was of no importance to them".
Federated Farmers Southland dairy section chairman Vaughan Templeton said the non-compliance was "completely appalling".
He warned yesterday farmers had to fix the problem themselves or the industry would not be allowed to grow. There was wide support among dairy farmers for "tidying up the act of those who are letting us down", he said.
