GREEN ISLAND DRAINAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22367, 14 September 1934, Page 8

GREEN ISLAND DRAINAGE

The report of the committee representing the Board of Health upon the application of the Green Island Borough Council for a requisition enabling it to enter upon a drainage scheme is published elsewhere. The committee can have had little hesitation in forming the conclusion that a complete scheme of drainage for the whole Kaikorai Valley is urgently required, and that the condition of the Kaikorai Stream is highly insanitary. The question of the remedy that should be applied is the only one about which any real difference of opinion is to be apprehended. The committee has approached this matter from two standpoints. This has, no doubt, been necessary because, in present circumstances, there are three local bodies that are concerned —a state of affairs which, in the opinion of the committee, should be rectified by the constitution of one controlling authority. And, if there is to be one paramount authority, the logic of events would, if nothing else would, ultimately determine that the Dunedin Drainage and Sewerage Board should be this authority. In the meantime, however, it is recommended that the Green Island Borough Council should, subject to certain conditions, be empowered to carry out its scheme of local drainage, the necessity of which is held to be amply evident. The conditions are that the outfall of the sewer should be carried out not less than 50 feet below the low-water mark of spring tides and that, if the discharge of sewage should there prove to be objectionable, the outfall should be carried to a point at Black Head. It was represented to the committee, however, that the cost of the scheme if the, outfall had .to be carried to Black Head would be beyond the resources of the borough. The committee does not seem to have made any reference to the Green Island Council’s request that it should be authorised to raise a drainage loan without securing the sanction of the ratepayers by poll. These points lose their significance, however, if the larger scheme, under which the Green Island Borough would be included in the Dunedin drainage district, is to be adopted. This is the course that is favoured by the committee as that affording “ the most satisfactory method of dealing with the problem.” It is one, moreover, which must be adopted if the Green Island Borough is unable to finance a scheme for disposing of its own drainage. The comprehensive scheme of drainage which could then be undertaken would necessarily make provision for the factory effluents, the treatment of which, so that they may be discharged into the sewers, should, in the view of the committee, be compulsory. The prosecution of a scheme of this nature would be dependent upon ample supplies of water, which should be available when the Deep Stream source is tapped by the city.