Detergent kills trout

Press, 26 November 1987, Page 9

Detergent kills trout

Car-washing detergent seeping into a tributary of the Avon River has killed a number of small trout, the Christchurch Drainage Board was told last evening.

The board’s chief engineer, Mr Peter Hunt, said that on October 26 a number of small trout were killed in the tributary near • Parkstone Drive. The board’s chairman, Mr Newton Dodge, said the public did not seem to realise that all pollutants that got into the gutters, went into the

stormwater pipes and ended up in the river. Mrs Marianne Alderdice suggested greater publicity and harsher penalties for offenders. The board agreed that staff be instructed to investigate the feasibility of a publicity campaign similar to one run in 1980. Mr Hunt said after the meeting that there had been the occasional incident in the past of fish dying from pollutants in the river but this had been rare in the last few years.

Costs The Combined Estuary Association has agreed that board staff should continue to clean up oil and other pollutant spills even if the costs could not be recovered. The association said in a letter to the board that it believed oil pollution should be cleaned up immediately and any costs be paid later. Appointment Mr Jim Adlam, of Upper Riccarton, has been appointed to the board to replace Mr

Richard Leach who resigned last month after being transferred to Wellington.

Mr Adlam is a retired builder who has served nine years on the Paparua County Council and is in his fourth term on the Sockburn Community Council. He has been appointed to the board’s development and construction committee and the staff and tenders committee. Mrs Louise Moore has been appointed to the finance committee.