Works wind blows ill

Press, 19 November 1982, Page 1

Works wind blows ill

A gentle north-easterly wind wafted an unwelcome reminder of the Bromley sewerage works over Christchurch yesterday. The unmistakable odour enveloped the central city business area, six kilometres away from the treatment plant, at intervals during the afternoon. Blocked drains, broken sewer pipes, and various other causes were suspected until it was found that the smell extended over a wide area.

It was particularly offensive in Linwood and Avonside, and was noticed in St Albans.

A spokesman at the sewerage plant said that the odour might have carried so far because the wind had shifted to the north-east, while warm, close, north-westerly weather continued, creating a kind of “inversion layer.” The Christchurch Drainage Board's deputy chief engineer, Mr D. G. H. Cooper, said that the smell had been

"reasonably bad” round the Bromley works for some time, but he was not aware of any complaint from the public yesterday. “It is not he sort of thing that people tend to complain about,” he said. Mr Cooper is convinced that the worsening of the odour problem in recent months is linked with the long drought. In times of normal rainfall, rainwater had a beneficial flushing effect on the sewerage system, he said. The Drainage Board was working along a definite line to beat the smell problem, but it would probably be some time before this was achieved.

“We do know that the material causing the odour comes down the sewers. We had thought it might be created at the plant,” said Mr Cooper. It was planned to tackle the problem by covering the filters with domes, then treating the air that passed through them.