Drums along river

Press, 30 January 1981, Page 1

Drums along river

Allegations that “several hundred” empty drums had been left along the banks of the Clarence River were denied yesterday by the Kaikoura County Council’s noxious weeds Inspector, Mr J. Gameson.

The Canoeing Association’s safety officer, Mr Graham Egarr, had earlier asserted from Wellington that empty 40-gallon drums had been left in big dumps within reach of floods, and that many had already been washed away. “We counted 47 in the Sawtooth Gorge alone,” he said, after returning from a week-end trip down the river.

Some drums had been washed downriver and battered on the rocks. “You don’t feel too happy cooking your dinner and drinking the w T ater when you have been paddling pant 2,4,5-T drums all day,” he said.

Mr Gameson said he had taken up 13 drums of 2,4,5-T “Double Strength” this year, and two were yet to be used. Also, 15 drums of kerosene had been taken up to work areas along the river. “We use helicopters and leave supply dumps up and down the river,” Mr Gameson isaid. “We are due back, there on February 9, and we bring out all our empty and full drums.” Mr Gameson said that estimates of several hundred empty drums lying along the banks, made by the . canoeists, were “a long way out” as far as his work was concerned. Mr Egarr caid the chemical had been used for spraying briar, but Mr Gameson said his drums had contained chemicals for spraying gorse and broom. No briar was sprayed in his area. He said that none of his drums had been washed out into the river, and there was no chance that the chemical would contaminate the water. A spokesman for the Lands and Survey Department at Molesworth station said there could be empty drums from spraying work along the river, but they would not be 2,4,5-T drums. The department used Tordon in that area.

A spokesman for the Agriculture Chemicals Board was unaware of the dumping and said that if the report was true, it wait a cause of concern, but the matter would be the responsibility of the district medical officer of health.