"SHEER MOONSHINE"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 24 March 1926, Page 10

"SHEER MOONSHINE"

. 1 ftMPLE WATER IN ORONGORONGO

SUPPLY ASSURED FOR MANY YEARS

STORAGE POSSIBILITIES IN I WAINTJI VALLEY.

"Sheer moonshine" was the term which Councillor R. Seinple applied to statements which havo been made recently that th.? Orongorongo river might fail to * ■ fill the new main to the city, via ■ ' ' Karori, in dry summers. Councillor Semple, who knows the ■ Orongorongo river because he has been .., there during the best part of four ''; years, maintains that there will al- •• ways-be ample water in the stream to supply the , higher levels of, the city, nnd that if. the council handles the position rightly by building up storage capacity in the Wainui Valley for t! e supply of intermediate and lower levels ■ ' Wellington need have no fears of water Shortage for many years to come. "I have read some of these statements that there is likely to be a -; -shortage of water'in the Orongorongo, > * and that there is even a possibility of the river drying up completely during the summer," he said to a "Post" reporter to-day. "They have no founda- ' "tion in fact whatever. It is not wise i_- Jo create a false impression of this Jkind, particularly in connection with the water supply of a city, though, false impression or not, the water will •r ?go on running, and the mere statement ••■ won't stop it. . ! *:.';.'-.'"l saw a very great deal of the "' "Orongorongo river during the four years I was associated with the council n the preparation for and the driving of -the :tunnel, and during three of the l^our summers I was constantly at the '.Orongorongo' end of the tunnel line. Never during that time were there any real signs of . the river drying up. . /.There was always a good flow, though ■ one summer was an unusually dry one, ■ and now that Huia'creek has also be'fn harnessed, with a smaller intake chamber, similar in principte to the main in- , take in the Orongorongo ted, there is i..i itill less fear of anything of the kind "suggested ever occurring. Huia crtak rises in a soakage area and maintains a steady flow, not so large, of course, , T , rt JM the flow of the Orongorongo, but .; very constant. ■ :.' " Certainly the main stream runs very :" low during three or four months of the year, but there is a. considerable difference between a stream running low \u and a stream going dry, and at sum- ' 'mer level there is enough water in the ;;.',- stream to supply Wellington's higher levels, via the Karori dam, for years to eome. "It is beautiful water, crystal clear :'■' v and beautifully clean, for the catch'inent area is clean, and the shingle and * - rock 6£ the river and creek beds act as '..' ' a natural filter. . Pollution is jnst "" about impossible, for the country is :''steep and largely rocky, and when rain „. .eomes the river roars down and wasiies ■:':/. anything that should not be there clear "•-away out to sea. MORE STORAGE WILL BE „ NEEDED. :i , : "During nine months of the year there is enough water in the Orongo- '" rongo river to supply two or three, possibly more, Wellingtons, and all t^e council needs to do is to increase the ,-,storage d"ams in the Wainui Valley as the city's population increases—th?s -:-apart altogether from a consideration ' of the excess flow in the Wainui stream ■•-'■also ? during the greater part of the year. The tunnel can take two or three more main*, so that there will be -io in getting the water through ;' to the Wainui side, and to increase as well the flow of water —by mains r<;n- ---.,. ning right to the city-rto the highpr levels. '! "The late Mr. Morton's idea.was to build another, and very much larger, :.;;^dam in the Wainui Valley below the -■ original Wainui reservoir. Shafts were ■"'sunk to determine the nature of the ■"-ground and foundations were tested "■'and found suitable. From this third .idam the fall would be sufficient to sup- = .ply all the lower levels of the city, and the Orongorongo-to-city main, or \. mains, would take care of the higher "levels. '■ In my opinion there should be '■■"■'sufficient flow by both those means for , a good fifty years ahead. The Akata- .\; rawa purchase waa a long-sighted one, "but it does not seem likely that Aka•tarawa water will be wanted, in Wellington for a long, long time if Orongo- - xongo and Wainui. water is handled ,";.Tightly. MORTON DAM MIGHT HOLD MORE. i'h '.'Whether the foundations of the Morton dam itself would permit it or not I do not know, but it seems to me that if they are good there is nothing to stop the engineers from strengthening the dam face and building it up * considerably higher to hold. back a great deal more water than it holds .. to-day. If that could be done, it would 'Vie a much less costly job than building a new dam, and there would also be the n", advantage of .a greater fall to Welling- ::. ton. The necessity of building a third - dam might in" that way be deferred for ; many-years." There was nothing in other suggestions which had been made that water stored up in dams would become stag- ., nant and unwholesome, said Mr. Semple, ■ and as a matter of fact there would " be no need to store up a damful of '-water year after year; fresh water 1 would be running in constantly, and jkt the other end there would be a conetant draw-off, and overflow during the greater part of the year. If need, be, any ordinary flam could be emptied ■ and refilled during the wet months without worrying anyone. "I don't care how you write what I have told you," concluded Councillor Semple, "as long as you make it clear to those people who have been making statements about a dry river bed in ■'■ the Orongorongo Valley that they are talking moonshine."