DRAINAGE AND THE HARBOUR

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 76, 28 March 1908, Page 4

DRAINAGE AND THE HARBOUR

The Harbour Board has now formally adopted the resolutions of the sub-com-mittee authorising the discharge of the city sewage, under certain restrictions, into the Waitemata. So far as the Okahu Point outfall is concerned the Harbour Board is satisfied to accept the City Council's proposals, so long as the sewage is carried far enough into the tideway, and is let out under suitable tfdal conditions, so as to prevent any contamination of the foreshore. Provision is to be made for dredging away the silt carried down through the sewers, and precautions must be taken : to prevent any interference with the harbour shipping. Tie Harbour Board reserves to itself the right of objecting to the continued: full discharge of the sewage if any nuisance is caused, in which case the City Council would presumably be compelled to treat the effluent so as to render it innocuous. A most important provision in tie proposed agreement is to the effect that the Harbour Board intends to confine this right of depositing sewage in the tideway entirely to the City Council, and will not extend permission to any other local body to dispose of its drainage in this way, except through the city's main intercepting sewer. This condition should have the effect of inducing tie suburban bodies to co-operate with the city in this work without further delay. If these proposals are accepted by the City Council and embodied in a final agreement, we think that the interests of the Harbour Board and the port will be sufficiently safeguarded. After all the expert evidence that has been submitted in favour of this scheme, we can hardly imagine that even the most suspicious and sceptical of our fellow citizens are still alarmed about any conceivable risk to public health or to the iarbour through the establishment of the new drainage system; and we congratulate tie people of Auckland that the consent now given by the Harbour Board has removed the last obstacle to its inauguration.