Three parties who allegedly illegally dumped oil drums in the Auckland region will appear in court on Thursday.
The dumping happened in Manurewa and the Waitākere Ranges late last year and earlier this year.
They face a total of 30 charges. Two relate to incidents in the Waitākere Ranges in January and March, six for a similar incident in Manurewa in December, and eight relate to the storage of oil barrels at the home and business addresses of one of the defendants.
Mayor Phil Goff says the council is sending a clear message.
"When people are too bloody lazy or they're irresponsible about dumping - in particular - commercial waste, but also domestic waste, and we get the evidence, we're going to prosecute those individuals."
Those involved face fines of up to $600,000.
Mr Goff says one party put toxins above a reservoir that supplies water to households.
"How irresponsible could you get to do something like that? Somehow they think that's okay. They'll save the money… but they'll put the burden on the ratepayer. That's not good enough. I've had a gutsful of it."
Mr Goff says a new hotline, 0800 NO DUMP, has caused the number of people reporting cases to go up by more than 80 percent.
"That's good… We need public cooperation to help us identify potential offenders and ensure that we know where rubbish dumped so we can clean it up as quickly as possible."
Newshub.
