Well water for eels

Press, 4 May 1981, Page 16

Well water for eels

A Christchurch eel exporting business wants an increased water supply but local councils are objecting to the company’s plan to take it from two wells in Woolston.

An application from Independent Fisheries, Ltd, seeking an increase in its existing water right of three litres a second to four litres a second has been heard by the standing tribunal of the North Canterbury Catchment Board.

The extra water, to come from two wells on the company’s Woolston property, would be used in the eel tanks and refrigeration condensers, said a company director, Mr C. H. Shadbolt. The company also wants permission to discharge water from the eel tanks into the Heathcote River.

But the Heathcote and

Lyttelton Borough Councils and the Christchurch City Council are objecting to the application. According to the Heathcote County engineer (Mr D. J. May) more wells increased the risk of contamination, of the underground water supply. Counsel for the Lyttelton Borough Council, Mr D. W. Palmer, said that the well field’s extraction limit had nearly been reached. The Catchment Board’s regional water engineer (Mr M. J. Bowden) said the right should be granted for three years because of the small effect it would have on the field and because no satisfactory alternative supply was available to Independent Fisheries.

The tribunal’s decision was reserved.