WATER FROM WELLS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30761, 27 May 1965, Page 9

WATER FROM WELLS

Board Policy Proposed

Although the board had no direct powers to control the use of underground water supplies, by declining to accept cooling water into its system it exercised a measure of indirect control, said Mr P. J. McWilliam, the chief engineer, to the Christchurch Drainage Board. Reporting on the disposal of cooling water from private wells, he suggested that any application should be sent to the territorial local authority asking for its commentsWhere the authority considered the water should not go to waste, the board should decline to accept it into its system. Every endeavour should be made to discourage any proposal to pump the water back into the ground unless approval had been obtained from the local authority and the Health Department.

Where the local authority had no objection to the water going to waste, the board could approve the discharge into the stormwater system if there was ample capacity and subject to conditions and charges the board fixed. Where the board had no stormwater sewer, drain, or watercourse immediately adjacent to the proposed point of discharge, the cost of any extension, which should be piped, to provide a connexion, should be met by the applicant. Discharge to the sanitary sewer should be prohibited. Mr McWilliam was asked by the board to make further inquiries.