Dairy farm effluent

All discharges of treated farm dairy effluent require a resource consent from the Taranaki Regional Council.

The vast majority of all discharge to land or water consents (1,868 or 70% in 2008) are for dairy farms. This has dropped from 2,299 reported in 2003.

Where minimum standards for waste disposal to water cannot be met, the Council requires wastes to be disposed of on to land, or the use of other treatment and disposal methods. Land disposal is also subject to conditions to avoid adverse environmental effects.

Largely due to increasing amalgamation of dairy farms over the past few years and encouragement to farmers to consider land treatment and disposal, there are fewer discharges into water than there were in 1995.

This page includes links to these publications in PDF format:

  •  Managing Farm Dairy Effluent (Dairying and Environment Committee).
  •  Design, Construction and Maintenance Guidelines for oxidation pond treatment of dairy shed and feedpad wastes (Taranaki Regional Council).
  •  Design, Construction and Maintenance Guidelines for the spray irrigation of dairy shed waste (Taranaki Regional Council).

Managing Dairy Farm Effluent (Dairying and Environment Committee Manual)
Preface 95kb
Managing farm dairy effluent 3.2mb
Land application 4.5mb
Pond systems 5.2mb
Effluent from feed pads, stand-off areas and other sources 933kb
Regional Council perspectives 575kb

Design, Construction and Maintenance Guidelines for
oxidation pond treatment of dairy shed and feedpad wastes (TRC)

Contents and Introduction 537kb
System and Design 1.2mb
Construction 1.1mb

Design, Construction and Maintenance Guidelines for the spray irrigation of dairy shed waste (TRC)
Contents and Introduction 489kb
Resource Consents, System Types, Collection and Receiving 1.6mb
Diagrams, Maintenance, Other Options and Monitoring 472k