Ratepayers Get Bill for Animal Waste Despite Small Dairy Industry

NEW ZEALAND - A South Island mayor is questioning why ratepayers and taxpayers are footing the bill to clean up industrial waste.
calendar icon 16 April 2019
clock icon 1 minute read

Stock effluent disposal sites are used to keep animal waste off New Zealand roads and prevent it from seeping into the environment.

But local authorities and the Transport Agency are responsible for covering the cost, not industry.

Central Otago District Mayor Tim Cadogan said most people were unaware they were paying to keep industrial waste off our roads.

"The real question is why are ratepayers or taxpayers anywhere paying for these things to be built and the last one that we got built here was $840,000. That's yet to be commissioned.

"They're dotted all over the countryside and they're there to collect the industrial waste of the dairy farmers at the taxpayers cost," Mr Cadogan said.

By 2015, there were more than 30 stock effluent disposal facilities across the country with about 18 either in the works or being considered.

Rates and taxes were being used to pay to build and maintain these sites, he said.

The Otago Regional Council (ORC) confirmed about a quarter of its proposed $840,000 site will be paid for by its ratepayers with funding from the Transport Agency covering the rest.

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Source: Radio NZ

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