RIVER POLLUTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 11

RIVER POLLUTION

GROWING PEOBLEM

NEED FOR ACTION

PREVENTION OR CURE?

While river pollution has not yet assumed in New Zealand the.serious position that it has 'in older and more closely-settled^ lands, instances are in- . creasingly forcing themselves upon attention. . Not all the cases of pollution arise from industrial" causes. In Wellington recently there have been instances where the pollution was due to oily matter from roads, and where the discharge of storm water into small creeks at Lower Hutt had polluted streams which were clear before the surrounding settlement took place. It ' is only when something unusual hapr pens, such as,ttte injury of swans in.a pond in the Botanical Gardens, that notice of the pollution is taken by the public, but in the aggregate there is no doubt that such pollution is increasing from many causes throughout New Zealand," and that steps should be taken to prevent it. ' , 'FAULTY DRAINS. One of the factors is that many old drains still discharge sewage which does not connect with the sewage sys? tern. In some cases it is the sea which suffers, in others it is rivers which are polluted. Storm-water drains, moreover, carry into creeks and Streams a continual deleterious oily discharge from sealed roads, particularly in hot weather followed by warm ram. Pollution of country streams arises from ■varied causes. Dairy factories among the most fruitful. There have been far fewer prosecutions than warnings, however, the general: method being to achieve the result without taking Court action, as dairy factories, take up the attitude that in view.of the importance of their, work to^the country the occasional release of harmful effluents is only a minor matter Then there are pollutions by sawdust, flax fibre, and the waste from other industrial activities, such as cheese factories, wool scourers, etc. UNDER WHOSE CONTROL? One of the peculiar points in the position ■is that apparently the only persons authorised to take proceedings against those infringing the law which makes the release of any. deleterious matter into streams am offence are the acclimatisation societies' rangers., With the exception of the Government 'fisheries in the.thermal region, all. inland fisheries are under the controroi the Marine Department, and while this Department is keen. enough to see that there is no pollutions of harbours fty 00, it has apparently taken very little ■notice of what is happening in the -rivers- it controls, probably because: its officers are otherwise engaged. ■ The aSatisation'societies are .in-reality the only bodies with power to take Proceedings, and that/only m a limited degree, as they have to prove ...that the effluents and are harmfuLto ifish. Not every manager^of a xactory is a fisherman, arid to. others the fish seem secondary unimportance to their industry. ■~.• ..-.- :• ■■■'>'-.: '; : /':' ■': WELLINGTON INSTANCES;, 1 The Health. Department, does not appear td come Into, the picture as much as it should. It is. all very well for the health of trout andi other wportal fish torbe; safeguarded, but; what of iho nublic' A one-time- favourite :b«feiri^ Munfarof *»**•. has .been abandoned, by ~Picnickers owing-to the fouling of -.theater, by an undesirable industrial effluent the . same ..thing .has happened from other .causes in Lower Hutt, where children have-been forbidden.to bathe in a stream" once used for the purpose and there' is the case of the Waiwhetu Stream, where oil. has: polluted vege'tatiori. and water to perhaps, the most outstanding local degree, AH- these '■ matters have been thesubject of protests,:and:remedies have been under-taken,-but the removal of the^effect of "such pollutions presents problems. Ttie' English authorities have set up a special investigation committee to go into all causes of pollution, advise of- ' fenders,, and tell those about to start factories with undesirable effluents how to dispose of them, safely. The disposal' of deletereous matter is not always easy. If the factory has a large area" of ground, it can provide sumps, or spread the offensive matter where in time it becomes purified and un-' harmful, but in a circumscribed space it is not an easy matter to get rid of the effluent or solfds satisfactorily. There1 was the case where a can of cream was upset on a factory floor, to cleanse which large quantities of ■ sulphuric acid were used, the result being the death of ■ fish. in the river adjacent. MENACE TO STOCK. ■The health of stock may' be seri-ously-endangered by the discharge of even small quantities of deletereous effluent into small streams. In several districts, in the South Island particularly, there has been a considerable extension of the practice of taking water from small rivers for irrigation purposes, and this has so reduced the flow in the rivers Concerned that they nearly- dry up in summer. If polluted under Such circumstances, these streams would be a real danger to stock, and even to farmers themselves. Prevention will no doubt take the place of more or less futile efforts to minimise the effects of pollution when in time the seriousness of the position is realised. The country is now only sparsely populated to what it will be in- the course of a few more years, and it seems as though legislation couid with advantage be altered.to bring . the importance .of prevention before the public. . ■ As far as dairy factories are concerned,, the position will probably be cleared.up as the result of long and for some time abortive negotiations between the Federated Taranaki Acclimatisation Societies and the Tara- ; naki Federation of Dairy Factories, which ended in a, joint deputation to the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. L. Martin), and the Minister of -Marine (the Hon. P, Fraser) late last year, a committee being set up under the Ministers to direct' such action as it deemed desirable to effect an improvement.- The whole question of pollution from all causes must in time be a most'important one to the public, and could well be referred to a national committee embodying representatives of the Health Department, set up on the English, lines, so that New Zealand streams may remain as pure as is possible with increased settlement. ■ ■ ■- - • ■ ■