Waste water spills into Saltwater Creek, North Canty

Environment Canterbury’s Pollution Hotline team is investigating a spill of what seems to be effluent water from a woodboard manufacturing plant at Sefton into Saltwater Creek, North Canterbury.

ECan was alerted to a milky, grey substance in the creek late yesterday by a member of the public who lives on Lower Sefton Rd. Pollution Hotline staff were at the site around 5 pm, took samples and alerted the nearby medium density fibreboard factory to the possible break in one of its irrigation pipes. The cause of the discharge is being investigated today but had ceased by late afternoon yesterday.

“The factory has a resource consent to discharge factory waste water, sewage oxidation pond effluent and stormwater via irrigation to their paddocks,” said ECan enforcement team leader Tony Smith. “In high concentrations, this effluent could deprive fish and stream life of oxygen.”

ECan has ensured that Waimakariri District Council, Ngai Tahu, Community and Public Health, Fish and Game, DOC and the local Pegasus Bay community group which includes whitebaiters and local fishermen have been alerted to the spill.

Last night and earlier thismorning there were no signs of dead fish in the stream, he said.

Samples showing concentrations of bacteria, nitrogen and organic material were taken but some of these results would not be available for several days. ECan’s Pollution Hotline team normally takes samples for 48 hours or more following a spill, upstream and downstream of the site.


For more information: Tony Smith, Environment Canterbury Enforcement Team Leader, 03 364 9896 or 027 208 3530 or James Tricker, ECan Environmental Protection Manager of Operations, 03 371 7134, 0274 578 935.