RISER POLLUTION

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19160, 17 November 1927, Page 14

RISER POLLUTION

MEAT COMPANY'S DRAIN.

APPEAL BOARD'S DECISION.

"Our decision ib entirely unanimous, and we are going to ask the appellant companv to do a number of things, namely the carrying out of improve-mems-to its plant, and by 'ask' we mean 'order/ " -Mr IS. D. Mitelcy, S M chairman of the Board of Appeal.' hearing the ca.,e !>ro.igiit by Uio Canterbury I'.mcu Meat Co.npa.. > again.t the decision of the \\aiman Corntv Council to refuse to aikm solid matter from the company s worKs to enter the Waimakariri river Mr .Motley delivered the judgment of tut Board at the .Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon. "With :>lr Moilev were the assessors, Dr ¥ G Gibson, for the company, and 31 r A. Freeman, for the County Council. Mr Loughnan appeared tor the appellant company, and Mr Hutcliison for the County Council. Harold Harris, resident engineer or the AVaimakariri River Trust, who was called first in yesterday's wituesse*, said the amount of water coming down the river varied from 1000 cusecs to 100,000 cusecs. the latter being au "old man" fresh. David Pcrcival Garrick, works manager for the company, said there was not sufficient land for the ploughing iu of the refuse. Floods occurred usually in the killing season. Witness had never heard anv complaints regarding the smell from the river, nor of any cases of sickness arising from the disposal of refuse in the river. Ilie dram owned by the company was periodically cleaned out. In replv to a question by Mr Hutchison: "The floods sometimes back up the drain, but the water was always flowing out." There had never been any serious trouble arisinc from floods though on one occasion the pipes containing offensive matter broke at flood time.

William Anderson, the company's engineer, said the installation of a catch pit with a bottom sluice would have to be very extensive to deal with the rapid flow of water. This would necessitate there being two pits so that one might be used while the other was being cleaned. A catch pit with a small area would be little, better than a drain. The catch pit would cost at least £IOO.

Charles John Sloman, ,a member of the committee of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, and chairman of the sub-convmitt€e set up to consider the pollution of the Wai-. makariri river, said there were sometimes quantities of "coagulated messes with a certain amount of wool," and a considerable amount of hair. In his opinion fish would eventually suffer if conditions were allowed to go on as they were at the present time. "I find," said John Dougall Stewart, farmer, of Stewart's Gully, "that sometimes the river' smells, and has a scum, with a slimy, fatty substance on the surface of it. The offensiveness of the river is worse in the warmer .weather and when there is no wind." "The odour present at the mouth or the drain, and the ditch portion before it enters the river was very offensive," said Dr. T. Fletcher Telford, referring to visits he had paid to the drains during the cause of his ordinary duties. In delivering the decision of the Board, Mr Mosley enumerated certain works which the company were ordered to carry out to the satisfaction of the Inspector-General of Health.

Costs were to be divided between the two parties, the assessors' fees to be paid by the appellant company.