River to get sewage in emergencies

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 2

River to get sewage in emergencies

The Cheviot County Council will probably be permitted to discharge untreated sewage into the Jed River during emergencies. The North Canterbury Catchment Board’s water committee will recommend this decision of a special board tribunal to the board soon.

The Health Department and the Ministry of Works and Development opposed the application on the grounds that the plant’s performance was unsatisfactory and that the river could not receive the discharge at all seasons.

On the face of it, the application should probably be declined, the tribunal said, but there was no alternative

to the present plant. A right authorising the present discharge should be granted to ensure the “continued operation of an essential public utility” while plans were made to improve dr replace the inadequate plant. “The present unsatisfactory conditions in the Jed River cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely and the Cheviot County Council must be seen to have taken positive steps to effect the necessary improvements . . . within the first two-year period of the grant,” the tribunal said.

Improvements would probably cost $60,000 with subsidy, the council calculated, The council’s share would be $40,000. Loans on the exist-

ing plant would not expire for about 10 years and so it needed time to find the finance for improvements.

[ The tribunal recommended that the council be entitled to discharge up to 405 cubic metres a day of untreated sewage in emergencies caused by malfunction or mechanical failure, provided that all practical measures were taken to repair the plant, that the Regional Water Board and Medical Officer of Health were notified, and that all reasonable measures were taken to clean up any gross pollution.

The tribunal also recommended a conditional right to discharge up to 405 cu m a day of treated domestic sewage into the Jed River.