Pollution Solution Hoped For

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 1

Pollution Solution Hoped For

The District Commis-! sioner of Works (Mr D. A. Lane) is confident that problems of river; and air pollution in New! Zealand will be solved I before they become unmanageable. Mr Lane, who will retire! from the Ministry of Works! today, has spent most of the last 12 months assisting with the implementation of the provisions of the Water Act, 1967. He sees the act as the salvation of New Zealand from the gross pollution which has poisoned the rivers of other countries, notably the United States and Britain. “The fact that we have got an act before the problems of river pollution get out of hand is a very big thing,” he said yesterday. “The act will no doubt be amended from time to time to ensure that the rivers will be kept free of pollution.” Mr Lane said he considered

that the act would have all the teeth it needed to deal! I with the pollution now affec-i :ting the Cam and Kaiapoi! ; rivers. I The Government and the i Pollution Advisory Council ! had been careful not to be I too precipitate in enforcing ' the anti-pollution measures available under the act. i “But as time goes by, more and more pressures will be put on various organisations ! to rectify problems they ! | create by polluting rivers,” The said. “The treatment of pollut- ■ i ants is difficult and expensive and the best way to do it is -Inot clear. Consulting engi'neers for the various con- ' cems in the Kaiapoi area are considering ways and means , of disposing of their wastes ; i to meet the requirements of ’the classifications,” he said. • “We are fortunate in that we I,have legislation to deal with II this problem.” t Mr Lane said he believed • that a solution to the problem of air pollution created I'by the internal combustion

engine would also be found. . I Such pollution would have to •ibe a major consideration of i 1 the future. Mr Lane began his engi- ■ neering career with the I Christchurch Drainage Board, t transferred to the Dunedin ; Drainage Board and later to ; the Dunedin City Corporation. His first major undertaking . was the construction of a . pipeline from near Middle- • march to bring badly needed r water to Dunedin. The new ■ pipeline increased supplies by 2.5 million gallons a day - “just a fleabite by today's > standards.” ; Mr Lane joined the Public - Works Department (now the - Ministry of Works) in 1938, > and at the outbreak of war s was assigned to aerodrome s construction. He converted f some paddocks on the Taieri . plains into a military aero- > drome then went to Fiji to i engineer the Nandi airstrip. “The job I look back on I with the greatest satisfaction - was building the runway at 1; Rarotonga. Forty of us went hup with new plant and built

i a 5000 ft runway with local labour in six months. I was the only engineer there and had to make all the decisions acting on Instructions by radio from Wellington,” he said. The new runway at Rarotonga to bring it up to international standards will be built over Mr Lane’s work. After the war he was put in charge of the design and construction of new services at Cherry Farm Hospital. He came to Christchurch 17 years ago just before the setting up of the National Roads Board. Since the board’s establishment great advances had been made in the sealing of South Island roads, he said. The State highway from Picton to Bluff had been completed, whereas before 1954 it had gone to just north of Kaikoura. A sealed route to the West Coast had been finished and major improvements made to the Akaroa road and the Arthur’s Pass route to the West Coast

Mr Lane has had the long- : est district office association with the Haast Pass road—- : from the early fifties. He will begin his retirement by taking a seven-month trip to Europe with Mrs Lane.