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Southland's four councils paid $599,468 in severance in the year to June, almost 50 per cent more than the year before, with a single $346,037 payment to Environment Southland's former chief executive accounting for more than half.
Environment Southland's 2025-26 compliance report shows 87 per cent of 1393 dairy discharge inspections were fully compliant or low-risk, almost unchanged from last year, despite one of the worst wind storms the region has seen.
South Port New Zealand shareholders meet in Bluff on Wednesday to farewell chair Philip Cory-Wright after 16 years, with Nicola Greer taking over following a record $16.1 million profit and Environment Southland's $30 million sell-down.
Environment Southland issued Invercargill City Council a formal warning on 23 September after an earthquake-damaged outfall pipe spilt treated wastewater onto the foreshore at Ocean Beach, Bluff, and the council is still not meeting its consent conditions.
The regional council has sold 3.75 million South Port shares at $8 each, cutting its stake in the Bluff port company from 66 per cent to about 52 per cent and moving the proceeds into a diversified investment portfolio.
A Rural Co-ordination Group of support agencies and industry bodies has met to line up help for Southland and South Otago farmers as prolonged wet weather tightens silage supplies and strains transport networks.
Environment Southland and the Southland District Council have turned down requests from a residents' coalition to review the water take and land use consents for Datagrid's $3.5 billion data centre at Makarewa.
A single juvenile Undaria plant found on a mooring line near Pukeweka Island, at the southern tip of Stewart Island/Rakiura, has been removed after a fisherman reported it to Environment Southland.