WELL LEVELS FALL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1937, Page 10

WELL LEVELS FALL

FIRMS INCONVENIENCED One result of the occurrence has been that the static level of the Petone borough's water supply has dropped nine inches. The static level is the height t6 which the artesian water goes above sea-level when tapped. A drop of nine inches does not, of course, have any effect on the supply to the houses. More serious has been the effect on business firms and private houses with their own artesian supplies. Lever Bros., whose works are in the vicinity of the Hutt Pipe Bridge, report a diminution in their supply of water, and so also do S. Oppenheimer and Co., Jackson Street, Petone. The Petone Steam Laundry has experienced serious difficult in getting the amount of water required, and one other large laundry, The Ideal Bagwash, noticed a falling off late last week, but attributed it to a stone which lodged in the pump. The main Gear works have not been affected, but some cottages owned by this company in the vicinity of the sandhills in the eastern end of Petone have had their water supplies seriously affected. In other cases the wells of houses in this vicinity have gone dry or seriously fallen off. An examination of the Seaview Road wells, from which a part of the Lower Hutt Borough and Eastbourne are supplied, showed today that there is a definite fall in- the height to which the \yater rises above ground. There is still,S however, an ample water level and the supply to the areas is not affected. BOARD NOT NOTIFIED The Hutt River Board which controls the river, but has by agreement handed over the reclamation work to the Public Works Department, had not, a "Post" reporter was told this afternoon, received official notification of the occurrence.