Hydraulic oil in river
The Christchurch Drainage Board is considering taking legal action against a Sockburn vehicle firm for a substantial leakage of waste hydraulic oil into the Heathcote River. The leakage was discovered yesterday. The board’s deputy chief engineer, Mr Don Cooper, said last evening that a tank containing the oil sprang a leak, about ground level, which was not noticed immediately.
“It is difficult to quantify the amount of oil that leaked into the river via Curletts Drain,” he said. “The firm has indicated that because a contractor periodically took the oil away it did not know exactly how much oil was in the tank when the leak
occurred.” Mr Cooper declined to name the firm. He said the board was first informed by a member of the public. At first the spillage just looked like rainwater off the roads. He suspected that much of the oil was carried out to the Heathcote Estuary and did not think that any special clean-up would be necessary.
Because the spillage was of light hydraulic oil there was little danger to birdlife. Most birds flew away from the affected area, Mr Cooper said. “I don’t know if any of the birds got their feathers coated in oil but I don’t think there were any disastrous effects,” he said.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19851218.2.75
Bibliographic details
Press, 18 December 1985, Page 9
Word Count
217Hydraulic oil in river Press, 18 December 1985, Page 9
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.