Prominent Griffith irrigator fined for water offences

A prominent Griffith irrigator has been fined more than $150,000 for over-pumping 7352ML of water over four years.

A prominent Griffith irrigator has been fined for over pumping the equivalent of 2940 Olympic swimming pools of water over four years. Photo: Salty Dingo

A prominent Riverina irrigator has been fined more than $150,000 for pumping 7352ML of groundwater without approval over four years — the equivalent of 2940 Olympic swimming pools.

Dean Troy Salvestro was convicted of five separate water offences and fined $156,250 in a judgment handed down in the NSW Land and Environment Court on Thursday.

He received a 25 per cent discount on the fines due to an early guilty plea and was ordered to pay court costs of $60,000.

The maximum penalty he faced for the five offences was $2.2 million.

Mr Salvestro grows grapes, cotton, wheat, canola, barley and corn over 12,000ha at Warrawidgee Station, south west of Griffith. The farm is one of the biggest producers of those commodities in the Riverina.

He is also involved in five other agricultural businesses, including a role as deputy chair of RivCott, a cotton gin.

Dean Salvestro grows cotton, wheat, grapes, canola, barley and corn on his family property, and is deputy chair of the RivCott cotton gin.

The court heard over-pumping on Warrawidgee Station dated back to the 2017-18 water year, and continued until it was picked up by the Natural Resources Access Regulator in 2020.

From 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018, Mr Salvestro over-pumped 966ML, followed by 2892ML of over-extraction in 2018-19, and 3494ML in 2019-20 across three separate offences.

Mr Salvestro told the regulator he did not keep logbooks or records of when he took water, and hadn’t trained his workers about turning pumps on or reading water meters.

He gave evidence to the court that he did not properly understand the extraction limits on his groundwater bores, and had “no intention of breaching any aspect of the (Water Management Act, and) certainly did not seek to obtain any benefit at the cost of the environment or my other neighbouring farmers”.

“I am embarrassed and regretful of the offences and through the advice received by my solicitors, I am now confident that I correctly understand the extraction limits imposed and my obligation in ensuring compliance with works approvals,” he said.

Five other responsible approval holders were also fined, after they were found to be associated with three of the charges Mr Salvestro faced. They were Benscrape Pty Ltd (fined $4,500), Belsal Pty Ltd (fined $4,500), Kiara Salvestro (fined $2,250), Kate Beltrame (fined $2,250) and Robert Beltrame (fined $2,250).

Robert Beltrame (who was advised by his wife Kate, Mr Salvestro’s sister) was fined $26,000 in March for over-pumping 97.5ML of bore water on his Warrawidgee property.