Drainage Board land ‘could be health risk’

Press, 28 November 1979, Page 6

Drainage Board land ‘could be health risk’

Poachers on Christchurch Drainage Board tarm land could put their health at risk. Mr C. H. Russell told a meeting of the board last evening. The farm land is used to dispose of sludge after treatment at the Bromley treatment works. Cattle are grazed on the land but only after the sludge has been on the ground for at least two months. Mr Russell said that he had recently disturbed three persons who had been hunting rabibts with bows and arrows on the board’s famr land. It was general knowledge that there were "things to be ha'd there” such as rabbits and ducks, he said. “If people are going to acquire food from the board’s

land they run the risk of taking game from an area that may have been spread with sludge quite recently.” The Department of Health had put severe restrictions on how cattle were grazed in the area. This was why no sheep or grain or salad crops were allowed. The chairman of the construction and treatment works committee (Mr J. de C. Hanafin) said that the possibility of patrolling the area had been discussed, but it had been decided that this would achieve nothing but expense for the ratepayer. The board’s engineer (Mr P. J. McWilliam) said that the board had always had a dean bill of health on the cattle grazed on the farm land. The cattle were sold for slaughter.