Griffith irrigator fined $26,000 for over-pumping

An “embarrassed” Griffith irrigator has been fined $26,000 for pumping 97ML of water over his limit during a drought.

A Griffith irrigator has been fined for over-pumping 97.5ML of water during a drought.

A Griffith irrigator has been fined $26,000 for over-pumping bore water during a drought.

Farmer Robert Beltrame was growing corn with his wife Kate at Warrawidgee, near Griffith, in 2020, when the offending occurred.

He pleaded guilty in the NSW Land and Environment Court to over-pumping 97.5ML of water — the equivalent of 39 Olympic swimming pools — and was fined $26,250 on Friday.

The maximum potential penalty for the offence was $500,500.

Mr Beltrame told the court the over-pumping was unintentional, and he was “embarrassed” and “regretful”.

At the time of the over-extraction, the market value of the over-pumped water was $21,000.

The Beltrames gave evidence to the court they purchased and paid for this water before using it to irrigate their corn crop, which was struggling due to the drought.

But Mr Beltrame was unaware of a condition of his water licence limiting him to extracting any more than 1100ML from the bore on the property, which he exceeded, pumping a total of 1197.5ML from the bore.

He told the court if he had properly understood the terms of his water licence, he would not have purchased and pumped the groundwater, and would have either used surface water or let the crop fail.

The judge accepted Mr Beltrame’s evidence that the over-pumping was unintentional.

Justice Pritchard ruled the offending was in the “low to medium range” of seriousness, due to the fact that Mr Beltrame had no record of prior convictions and had accepted responsibility for his actions.

Five other irrigators are currently facing prosecution by the Natural Resources Access Regulator in the Land and Environment Court, with potential penalties in the millions of dollars.