Reza Abdul-Jabbar and his company Marshall Road Farm (previously Rural Practice Ltd) appeared in the Environment Court at Invercargill yesterday on four charges laid under the Resource Management Act.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of unauthorised discharging of contaminants in circumstances which may result in that contaminant entering water, and two charges of breaching an abatement notice.
The maximum penalty for all charges combined is a fine of $1.8 million.
Earlier this year, Abdul-Jabbar was fined $215,000 after the Employment Relations Authority found he had breached multiple employment standards.
He was under-paying his three immigrant farm workers and ‘‘invented’’ pay records in an attempt to hide it from authorities.
Abdul-Jabbar was the face of Fonterra and the Department of Conservation’s Living Water project, and has made headlines for his trail-blazing methods.
In September last year, Abdul-Jabbar told a farming website he did his best to be at the forefront of good environmental practices.
Yesterday, the court heard Abdul-Jabbar had placed a lot of responsibility in a contractor who operated the farm. On March 17 last year, a council compliance officer visited the site, near the Awarua Wetlands, after they received a complaint that cows were in the Waituna Stream.
The contractor was served an abatement notice but more problems were found when inspectors returned five months later.
Silage leachate, a liquid that seeps from silage storage and is a potential environmental pollutant, was observed.
The defendant’s silage was stored on unsealed ground, which allowed the contaminant to seep into soil and potentially flow into waterways, an Environment Southland summary said.
The farm had been without an effluent pump for the past 10 days as it had broken down and was being repaired, the contractor said.
He said the pump was only back on site the day before the inspection and it was set up to pump pooled liquid back into the effluent pond.
But the pipe was leaking, causing contaminated liquid to escape on to the road.
During a follow-up check on October 18 last year, the inspector noticed there had been little to no change to the state of the silage stack and leachate was still exuding from it.
Following this visit, the council issued an abatement notice which set out what changes had to be made on the farm.
The next month, a further complaint about stock in the waterways was made.
In December, council officers returned to the farm but the silage stack remained in the same condition.
The council summary noted that while Abdul-Jabbar and his farm had not previously appeared before the Environment Court, there was a history of non-compliance with environmental obligations.
Earlier this year, Abdul-Jabbar was fined $215,000 after the Employment Relations Authority found he had breached multiple employment standards.
Yesterday, counsel Emma Stewart said while her client accepted the charges, he was not made aware of the issues by his contractor.
‘‘There was no reason to think that [the issues] wouldn't be managed properly,’’ she said.
She also argued Abdul-Jabbar was unaware of the abatement notices for the same reason.
Ms Stewart said the farm had since significantly upgraded its effluent pump system and moved the silage stack on to a well-covered concrete pad.
She said the defendant did everything he could to address the issues when they were brought to his attention.
‘‘It wasn't a case of a deliberate effort not to comply. Mr Abdul-Jabbar would be horrified to think that was the assessment that’s been made,’’ she said.
Prosecutor for Environment Southland Emma Pairman acknowledged Abdul-Jabbar’s swift efforts to fix the effluent pump, but said better back-up systems should have been in place.
‘‘There was clearly no backstop or no cautionary approach for what happens if the effluent pump fails,’’ she said.
‘‘That's where the true mischief in this case lies.’’
She said a diligent farm owner would have been more aware of what was going on at the property.
Judge Prudence Steven KC reserved her sentencing decision, but is expected to deliver it next week.
