ILAM BOILER CHIMNEY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29350, 1 November 1960, Page 19

ILAM BOILER CHIMNEY

Injunction Move Considered

After considering all legal aspects of the nuisance which residents fear from coal-fired boilers at the Ham campus of the University of Canterbury, counsel retained by the Ham Action Committee has given the opinion “that no successful action for an injunction could be instituted while the Ministry of Works is responsible for the erection of the boiler house. If, however, when the installation is operated by ffie university a public nuisance is then created, steps could be taken to have the appropriate proceedings instituted.” The Ham Action Committee has received an engineering consultant’s report on “the pollution to be expected from an installation such as this” and a medical report “on the effect of such pollution on health.” These have been considered by counsel. “The committee itself wishes to point out that whereas the Ministry of Works maintains that there would be no pollution caused' by the installation, the engineer’s report analyses the causes and gives figures for likely pollution by siilphur dioxide gas. These figures give rise for concern,” says a statement issued by the committee last evening. "The report gives a calculated figure for the concentration of this gas at the chimney 'exit of 4900 parts a million. Between 400 and 500 pants a million is considered dangerous to life. “At ground level the calculated concentration under average weather conditions would be five to six parts a million, which is several times greater than that accepted in Britain and the United States. “On the damage caused by pollution from sulphur dioxide gas, the (in part) reported:— “‘lt is not possible to say quantitatively the damage which would result from concentration of sulphur dioxide resulting from the chimney, but in regions affected by domestic emissions plus the excessive university concentration, or in regions getting contamination from down draught and down wash, excessive damage would undoubtedly occur to plants, buildings, and people or animals’. “The situation in which Government money is being spent to construct a boiler house which ‘would undoubtedly’ cause such damage surely calls for a critical re-examination of the plans for the installation,” said the Ilam Action Committee.