Company’s share of pollution unknown

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 2

Company’s share of pollution unknown

Drinking water at Pre-1 bbleton is contaminated, es-i pecially with nitrates. There' is little disagreement on this ’ point, but what is not: known is how much of the contamination, if any, comes | from the plant of Meadow! Mushrooms, Ltd. Evidence at a water-rights! hearing before the North' Canterbury Regional Water: Board in the last two days has given no indication that; contamination has reachedj dangerous levels. The hearing ended yesterday after long discussions! on whether toxic fumigating; gas might enter the ground-; water system, and on the’ means of discharge for the! firm’s septic tank effluent. The special tribunal i formed to hear the com-' pany’s application and I objections from the Health' Department, Paparua County and residents, will present its decisions to the board's meeting next month. Yesterday the Deputy Medical Officer of Health in! Christchurch (Dr J. G. Tees) I a specialist in occupational! medicine was questioned! about the effects of the! fumigating gas, methyl bro-' mide, used by the company. He said that the chemical was not soluble in water. Dr Tees said that he had invited residents repeatedly to report any ill-effects they might attribute to the chemical! and he also had asked medical practitioners for any such reports. None were received, he said, until yesterday when a complaint came from an objector to the Water-right application.

: The tribunal’s chairman (Mr J. W. Levy) said he was surprised in light of comi plaints, by objectors, that nobody had taken up the Health Department’s offer of free medical examinations. Dr Tees said that children would have to drink an un- ’! usually large quantity of Prebbleton water to be affected by nitrates. The deipartment had never come ..across a case of nitrate poiJ soning in New Zealand. Nitrate levels were rising ! in water supplies throughout New Zealand, “and the whole fanning community J could be at fault.” “I am extremely con:cerned about people at Pre> , bleton and elsewhere, they !need a lot of medical help. : But we have all got to live i with industries all of which ipose health risks of one sort i or another.” I Dr Tees said that, as far as he was concerned, . Meadow Mushrooms was ; “not bad” insofar as industrial hygiene is concerned, -I compared with other industries, and “pristine” comi pared with some farming | activities in the Prebbleton 1 area. ! Objectors at the hearing • i asked for immediate repair . i of the concrete pad upon I [which composting materials I are stored, alleging that 1 manure might leak into the riground water supply. r| Mr L. A. Graham, the -1 Health Department’s senior 1 inspector of health, asked r that if water rights were ap- - proved, they carry the con- ■ | ditions that the company 5 look for less toxic pesticides

and that waste water be monitored for traces of pesticides. Paparua County, represented by its health inspector (Mr A. Minnery) offered little objection to the water-rights applications, especially since the company had the day before dropped its application to dispose of wash-down water by irrigation. His main objection was to the condition presented by the regional water engineer for the board (Mr M. J. Bowden): that the company abandon its septic tank soak-pit system and adopt a different means of effluent disposal. Mr Minnery referred to the high cost of alternate systems and questioned their effectiveness. A consulting engineer (Mr T. G. B. Armitage), who the previous day gave evidence for the company, said that the firm’s septic tank load was the equivalent of a three-bedroom house and need not be enlarged. Mr Minnery said he was inclined to agree. It was also noted that the county has drilled a new, deep well at Prebbleton which produces much cleaner water than the present two shallow wells and which should be in use as soon as a pump is delivered. The deep well will provide virtually all reticulated drinking water. Septic tank pollution existed throughout Prebbleton, Mr Minnery said.