RIVER POLLUTION CAUSES ALARM

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 1

RIVER POLLUTION CAUSES ALARM

Members of the Pollution Advisory Council expressed shock and dismay at the grossly polluted state of the Cam and Kaiapoi rivers during an extensive inspection yesterday.

The council members and representatives of the North Canterbury Catchment Board said they were alarmed that although the river complex had been classified for two years there was no evidence of improvement in the state of pollution.

During the day about 30 members of the council, board, Kaiapoi Borough Council, Marine Department, Health Department and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research inspected six main effluents discharging into the rivers. Members said they were appalled by the state of the Cam River at a point where one works discharges wastes, 'dyes and other materials. ■ A member of the pollution |council, after inspecting the facilities for treatment of effluent before discharge into the river, described them as “bloody useless.” Representatives of the Kaiapoi Borough Council said !that the state of the river at the point in question was clean yesterday compared with its usual condition. PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWN They produced coloured photographs taken on another day which showed the river blue with dye and with a heavy coating of scum on top. Yesterday the banks were coated with white scum and the water hardly moved except for slight motion in the middle. Further up the Cam, where another factory discharges effluent, lumps of greasy wool and detergent floated by after going through what members of the inspection party called “a primitive treating process.” The process was a piece of timber about 6in by lin across an outlet which trapped the solid rubbish. The chairman of the Pollution Advisory Council (Mr

R. J. Kerr) said to a director of the company which runs the factory that there was heavy chemical pollution in the discharge into the river. Later in the day the inspecting party went to Kairaki Beach and saw about 200 fishermen in search of whitebait The Deputy Mayor of Kaiapoi (Mr R. Wylie) said that the Borough Council was concerned that unless anti-pollu-tion measures became effective soon there would be nothing at Kairaki to fish for. At the end of the inspection Mr Kerr said that although things looked bad now improvements would be quick in coming. While the industrial enterprises had apparently done nothing about their polluting the rivers they had been investigating ways of dealing with it “Some of these problems must be solved as soon as posible,” he said. “The companies and local authorities are working with engineers to find the most suitable ways of treating effluent to meet the classified requirements.

“We are just at the stage where we are able to get working drawings done and have some work completed in the next year or two,” he said. "We will now see rapid progress to the solution,” he said. Representatives of the Kaiapoi Borough Council and the Kaiapoi-Petone Group Textile Company will meet today to discuss proposals for a possible joint treatment plant for effluent.