RIVER POLLUTION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18095, 10 June 1924, Page 8

RIVER POLLUTION.

ANALYST'S REPORT. There was a brief discussion at yesterday's meeting of the Waimairi County Council on the question of river pollution. A report was received from Mr A. A. Bickerton, Government Analyst, in respect of a sample of drainage effluent from the Belfast Freezing Works outfall drain into the Waimakariri. The-.report gave the following analysis : —Parts per 100,000. —Total solid, 147.5; organic matter, 67.5; mineral matters, 80: chlorine, 17.5; oxygen absorbed within five minutes, 10.2; oxygen absorbed in four hours, 15; free ammonia, 0.036; nitrates, nil; arsenic, nil. The oxygen absorbed was five times as much as should be possessed by an effluent to be discharged into a stream. If the effluent were discharged into i stream in sufficient quantity, it would poison fish by abstracting the oxygen upon which they breathed. It would be most deadly if discharged intermittently, for "then the fish could not avoid it. Cr. G. E. Curry moved that a copy of the analysis he sent to Canterbury M.P.'s, and that the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society be supported in its endeavours to prevent river pollution. Cr. W. P. Spencer: There is no evidence that fish had been poisoned there. It is only feared that they might be. Cr. Curry: If we don't make a move in the matter, it will not be long before the whole Waimakariri becomes a sewer. Cr. l). E. Crosse; Where does the drainage of London go ? Is it into the Thames? Cr. Curry: Yes, but have you ever seen the Thames? We don't want the Waimakariri like that. The motion was carried. i