Councillor sees risk from Hilltop abattoir

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 9

Councillor sees risk from Hilltop abattoir

A Wairewa country councillor believes that plans for an abattoir at Hilltop, on the main road to Akaroa, do not allow enough protection against contamination of nearby residents’ water supply, which comes from springs. Cr David Cadman voted against planning approval for the project, by Banks Peninsula Meat, Ltd, at a Wairewa County Council meeting on Friday. He said yesterday that the proposed site was a small plateau, and treated effluent dis* charged into the jgound

near it would run down the hillside. The North Canterbury Catchment Board had recommended that a 600 cubic metre effluent storage pond be installed to take any effluent that the ground could not absorb. The council did not make this recommendation a condition of its approval for the project, saying that it should be dealt with in the water-right application. “I have told my council I do not want to hide behind the North Canterbury Catchment Board,” sais Cr

Cadman. “We should give planning consent only if they agree to put in an effluent storage tank, and guarantee that people’s water supply not be contaminated.” Water supplies of homes in the area should be tested before the abattoir was built, and then tested again for two years afterwards, to ensure no contamination had occurred, Mr Cadman said. All residents in the area took their water from springs, he said.