Kaiapoi River less polluted today than 30 years ago - ECan chair
Environment Canterbury takes river pollution extremely seriously, says ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke. Sir Kerry was responding to media reports of a meeting he attended on the banks of the Kaiapoi River this week.
“The Kaiapoi and Waimakariri rivers are in much better shape today than they were in the past. If we go back 30 or 40 years, the Kaiapoi River was not clean and fresh as some have claimed. It would have contained untreated sewage and effluent from freezing works and woollen mills, plus a good dollop of chemical waste and animal fat. The lower Waimakariri also took untreated waste from two freezing works at Belfast and the Kaputone Wool Scour. That situation is now vastly better for the river environment,“ he says.
Sir Kerry said the regional council took pollution particularly seriously with regard to industries using the river like a waste-outlet. “The reports of on-the-spot pollution are the hardest to prosecute because we need witnesses for a case to stack up in the Environment Court and often these singular cases are not the causes of the most serious, cumulative pollution. This is more likely to come from industries and towns with sewage disposal and waste pipes next to rivers.
“Thanks to pressure from organisations like Environment Canterbury, and the willingness of the Waimakariri District Council to make changes, the sewage of Rangiora and Kaiapoi is now discharged into an ocean outfall pipe, bypassing the Kaiapoi and Cam Rivers.
“ECan officers’ pressure and advocacy for the river environment, supporting many local residents who also value their rivers, led to more stringent resource consent conditions for the fellmongery at Belfast. For the past five years it has discharged its waste into the Christchurch sewage system for further treatment, not into the river.
“A number of other river-polluting industries no longer exist due to economics and the value of the land to housing developers.â€Â
Sir Kerry said ECan staff had investigated about a dozen claims of “fat†floating down the river in recent months which some people believed to be industrially-produced. In all cases the “fat†was naturally-occurring river algae which appears in summer months at times of low flows. ECan is investigating charges of waste wood going into the river from engineering activities, which could have become a navigational hazard.
People dumping fish carcasses or car bodies or other rubbish in the river would be investigated but ECan relied on members of the public to take down car number plates, report people to authorities and be prepared to stand by their statements in court. It was not ECan’s job to drag rubbish out of the river unless it was causing a dangerous discharge or navigational hazard, although environmental protection staff who operated the 24-hour Pollution Hotline service would often do so.
“Our environmental protection staff are often the first on the spot to contain oil spills in rivers and organise sucker trucks to prevent contamination going downstream. We rely on the public and local councils to play their parts also and not wait for someone else to initiate river protection if they discover contamination,†Sir Kerry said.
“The regional council is not the litter police of all rivers – we would need to employ thousands of officers to do so. People need to put the blame for littering and rubbish dumping in the river environment back on the individuals who did it, not the regional council.â€Â
“The Kaiapoi and Waimakariri rivers are in much better shape today than they were in the past. If we go back 30 or 40 years, the Kaiapoi River was not clean and fresh as some have claimed. It would have contained untreated sewage and effluent from freezing works and woollen mills, plus a good dollop of chemical waste and animal fat. The lower Waimakariri also took untreated waste from two freezing works at Belfast and the Kaputone Wool Scour. That situation is now vastly better for the river environment,“ he says.
Sir Kerry said the regional council took pollution particularly seriously with regard to industries using the river like a waste-outlet. “The reports of on-the-spot pollution are the hardest to prosecute because we need witnesses for a case to stack up in the Environment Court and often these singular cases are not the causes of the most serious, cumulative pollution. This is more likely to come from industries and towns with sewage disposal and waste pipes next to rivers.
“Thanks to pressure from organisations like Environment Canterbury, and the willingness of the Waimakariri District Council to make changes, the sewage of Rangiora and Kaiapoi is now discharged into an ocean outfall pipe, bypassing the Kaiapoi and Cam Rivers.
“ECan officers’ pressure and advocacy for the river environment, supporting many local residents who also value their rivers, led to more stringent resource consent conditions for the fellmongery at Belfast. For the past five years it has discharged its waste into the Christchurch sewage system for further treatment, not into the river.
“A number of other river-polluting industries no longer exist due to economics and the value of the land to housing developers.â€Â
Sir Kerry said ECan staff had investigated about a dozen claims of “fat†floating down the river in recent months which some people believed to be industrially-produced. In all cases the “fat†was naturally-occurring river algae which appears in summer months at times of low flows. ECan is investigating charges of waste wood going into the river from engineering activities, which could have become a navigational hazard.
People dumping fish carcasses or car bodies or other rubbish in the river would be investigated but ECan relied on members of the public to take down car number plates, report people to authorities and be prepared to stand by their statements in court. It was not ECan’s job to drag rubbish out of the river unless it was causing a dangerous discharge or navigational hazard, although environmental protection staff who operated the 24-hour Pollution Hotline service would often do so.
“Our environmental protection staff are often the first on the spot to contain oil spills in rivers and organise sucker trucks to prevent contamination going downstream. We rely on the public and local councils to play their parts also and not wait for someone else to initiate river protection if they discover contamination,†Sir Kerry said.
“The regional council is not the litter police of all rivers – we would need to employ thousands of officers to do so. People need to put the blame for littering and rubbish dumping in the river environment back on the individuals who did it, not the regional council.â€Â