Conservation Week

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32379, 19 August 1970, Page 12

Conservation Week

Sir,—l see the Christchurch Drainage Board is showing a general disregard for Conservation Week principles, and the Belfast pilot pond will be discharged Into the south branch of the Waimakariri (contract 70/1367) This makes a total of three sewage systems, three freezing works, one woollen mill and a fellmongery discharging into the lower Waimakariri—with two yaeht clubs, a water-ski club, thousands of fishermen and swimmers In the path of this effluent. Surely It is time for the people of Canterbury to shout in horror at each new deflier of their recreational waters.—Yours, etc., PLUMBOB.

August 8, 1970. [Mr P. J. McWilliam, chief engineer for the Drainage Board, replies: “Your correspondent appears ,to have a detailed knowledge of the sources of pollution in the lower Waimakariri River. It is surprising that he is apparently not aware of the two purposes of the Belfast pilot pond, namely: (1) to enable the sewage from Belfast to be collected and purified so that (a) a serious health hazard in the community is eliminated and (b) the receiving waters are not adversely affected; and (2) to allow experimentation to take place on treatment methods so that suitable means can be determined for dealing satisfactorily and economically with some of the other sources of pollution he refers to, mainly those associated with the meat industry which is so vital to New Zealand's prosperity. In other words, the purposes of the Belfast pilot pond are entirely in accord with conservation principles.")