A section of Saltwater Creek, which was polluted by the spill. Photo: Supplied / Google Maps
The company responsible for a wastewater spill that killed thousands of fish in a North Canterbury creek has been convicted and fined $12,000.
Fibreboard manufacturers Daiken New Zealand had pleaded guilty to the charge late last year, which carried a maximum penalty of $600,000.
The company is wholly owned by major Japanese multinational conglomerate Daiken Corporation but is not associated with air conditioner manufacturer Daikin Industries.
The charge - brought by the Canterbury Regional Council under the Resource Management Act - was of discharging of a contaminant onto or into land in a manner that resulted in the contaminant entering water, after wastewater spilled from the medium density fibreboard (MDF) factory into Saltwater Creek, a tributary of the Rakahuri/Ashley River.
The spill, which happened overnight on 31 August 2023, saw wastewater contaminated by substances used in the MDF refining processes, including paraffin, urea, formaldehyde, resin, bacteria, and surfactants, as well as a small amount of treated human waste.
The court heard the spill was caused by a failure in piping waste from one part of Daiken's wastewater system to another.
Daiken's wastewater system was made up of an oxidation pond, an aerated pond, storage lagoons and a partially suspended lagoon (PSL), which is about 30 metres from Saltwater Creek.
Recently installed Venturi manual pumps operated continuously to keep the PSL at a constant level.
When a Daiken employee noticed the outlet tube of first of the new pumps was vibrating, he fixed a custom-made brace to it.
But when two other pumps were installed shortly before the spill, their tubes were left unsecured.
One of the tubes broke overnight, resulting in about 1500-1700 m3 of wastewater spilling onto land and into Saltwater Creek.
The Daiken New Zealand Ltd factory in Ashley, near Rangiora. in 2023, wastewater was discharged to land after a pipe broke, and into the adjacent Saltwater Creek, seen here to the bottom of the company's wastewater ponds. The Ashley River/Rakahuri is less than a kilometre from the storage ponds. The company was fined $12,000 in the Christchurch District Court on Wednesday. Photo: Google maps
Lawyers representing Daiken said the employee who secured the pipe on the first tube was away when the other two were installed.
In his absence, the company's mechanical co-ordinator contracted another company to install pump supports, and another to attend to the commissioning of the pumps.
Neither installed braces. A senior representative of one of the companies told his counterpart at Daiken he was happy with the installation, and not concerned with "a little bit of movement".
On the basis of that advice, and after organising for another contractor to complete the bracing the next day, Daiken's co-ordinator left the pumps running overnight.
The judge described the person involved as a reliable senior employee with about 50 years experience, and classed the incident as a "one off lapse of judgement".
Regional council officers at the scene after the spill recorded the creek as a "very turbid light brown" with a "strong odour of MDT effluent".
Council reports and subsequent scientific analysis found the discharge resulted in "a severe and rapid drop in dissolved oxygen concentrations", with the decline in water quality persisting through most downstream river reaches for at least ten hours, and likely extended to the estuary - even with dilution - resulting in at least four to 10 hours of "severe and extensive degradation of water quality", Judge Hassan said.
"Thousands of aquatic fauna would have perished, including likely the total downstream populations of some taxa including inanga, brown trout and bully" mostly by suffocation, with those left alive suffering "acute stress".
Saltwater Creek is made up of a myriad of spring fed channels, and provided habitat for several threatened and endangered species, including the kana kana or pouched lamprey, long and short fin eels, inanga (whitebait), blue gill and giant bullies.
Whitebait spawn in the river margins and wetlands of Saltwater Creek between autumn and winter, and surveys prior to the discharge identified declines in kākahi - fresh water mussels - which have a threat status of at risk. Other species included common smelt and black flounder.
Te Aka Aka/Ashley estuary is classified as an area of significant natural value in the Regional Coastal Environmental Plan, and as an wetland of ecological and representative importance by the Department of Conservation, Judge Hassan said.
The discharge coincided with the opening of the annual white-bait season. Anglers and whitebaiters were told to avoid the area, landowners and water users were warned of the risk to stock, and Te Whatu Ora was notified.
The regional council's lawyers suggested a starting point of $130,000, while the company's legal counsel suggested a conviction and discharge would be appropriate, and, if not, a starting point of $130,000 was supported by precedent.
On Wednesday, Judge Hassan convicted the company, and fined them $12,000.
Judge Hassan found Daiken's offending to have caused a temporary severe environmental consequence, with experts predicting it would have taken 12 months for the ecology to recover, as well as cultural harm and harm to the wider community.
Daiken had a commendable history of "responsible local environmental stewardship," the judge said, noting a wetland restoration project on the company's land in conjunction with the Waimakariri Biodiversity Trust.
Judge Hassan said he considered the nature of the environment affected, the extent of harm inflicted, deliberateness and attitudinal factors, and found Daiken's culpability to be low.
Through a restorative justice process, Daiken committed to pay $15,000 to Waimakariri Biodiversity Trust, and $15,000 to the Sefton Saltwater Creek Catchment Group, and agreed to contribute at least $20,000 towards consultants to carry out assessments and baseline exploratory work across the wider catchment.
The company also proactively engaged with Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu and Te Ngāi Tuahuriri, committing to work together on enhancing the health of the creek, including providing regularly monitoring and improvement updates, Judge Hassan said.
The terms of these payments were set out in an enforcement order, which requires Daiken make the payments by specified dates.
After adopted a starting fine in the range in the order of $80,000, Judge Hassan discounted it for Daiken's guilty plea, good character and remorse, then accounted for the other financial commitments, resulting in the final fine of $12,000.
The Rangiora company is wholly owned by Japan's Daiken Corporation, which made 210 billion yen (NZ$2 billion) in revenue and 3.9 billion yen (NZ$45m) in profit in the 2023/2024 financial year.
Daiken New Zealand's revenue over the same period was NZ$185.5 million, and its profit after tax was $19.9m.
Environment Canterbury compliance manager Jennifer Rochford said the fine was lower than the council expected, but it respected the decision of the court.
