Spill blamed on Kapuni staff

Press, 9 May 1983, Page 6

Spill blamed on Kapuni staff

PA Wellington Failure by maintenance staff to follow proper procedures resulted in ammonia's being spilled into the Kapuni Stream in April, the Commission for the Environment has found.

The commission’s report on the spillage from the Kapuni Natural Gas treatment station has been released by the Minister for the Environment, Dr Shearer. The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr K. W. Piddington, recommended that the Natural Gas Corporation give its staff regular refresher courses on ap-

propriate operating and maintenance procedures. “Failure to follow appropriate procedures by maintenance staff when replacing a faulty valve in an ammonia pipeline resulted in a spillage of about 10 kilograms of ammonia, he said.

“Insufficient and inappropriate collection vessels were used to catch the inevitable leakage from such an operation. There was no allowance for contingencies,” Mr Piddington said that because the spillage was a small one, staff regarded it as a health risk rather than pollution.

The spillage was flushed with lots of water which flowed into the stormwater system and to the stream.

At that time, April 13, the Kapuni Stream had a 40year low flow, which magnified the effect of what was a relatively small spillage.

Mr Piddington recommended that the corporation make an effort to supply appropriate mobile collection tanks to cope with maintenance spillages of this type. Consideration should also be given to collecting and holding stormwater so that any contamination could be

neutralised before release to the Kapuni Stream. “In view of the recent application for variation of process-effluent water rights by the corporation to allow discharge to the Kapuni Stream, both the corporation and the Taranaki Catchment Commission should be encouraged to consider combining stormwater and effluent streams. This would allow neutralisation of contaminants before release to the stream.”

Alternatively consideration could be given to using a water reservoir to flush and neutralise spillages when the Kapuni Stream was at a low flow.