No Objections On Waimak. Pollution

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31226, 25 November 1966, Page 14

No Objections On Waimak. Pollution

No objections have been received to the preliminary classification of the waters of the lower Waimakariri river and its tributaries, although yesterday was, officially, the last day for lodging them with the Pollution Advisory Council.

“We have had letters exchanged between us and the Christchurch Drainage Board to clear up misunderstandings, but apart from that, nobody seems to be very interested,” said the council’s secretary (Mr P. E. Muers) in a telephone conversation from Wellington yesterday.

The council would meet in Wellington today, he said, but the final classification would not be considered. It was probable that the final classification would be settled at the next meeting, towards the end of February. Mr Muers said that although

three months from the date of the public meeting in Christchurch had been set as the closing date for objections, the council was not hard and fast on that and would still be prepared to receive objections and comments.

There was provision for appeals to be made against the final classification, he said. “We don’t like to be in too much of a hurry about these schemes,” said Mr Muers. “Someone has pointed out that there is a bathing area further up the river, and it is interesting to note that there has been no reference to Stewarts Gully as a bathing area.”

Representatives of local bodies, industries and sports groups were told by the council in Christchurch in August that the aim was to restrict the pollution of the lower Waimakariri and the Cam rivers.

The preliminary classifications of these waters, and of the bathing beaches on either side of the Waimakariri mouth, were classified to conform to certain standards of purity.

All those discharging water into the streams will, under the final scheme, have to secure permits or temporary permits, the latter requiring improvements in the quality of the discharge to be made over a period.