'No danger of nitrate in water’

Press, 10 April 1979, Page 2

'No danger of nitrate in water’

PA Wellington Ammonia-urea produced by the proposed S6OM petro■chemical plant at Kapuni will not be used widely as an agricultural fertiliser in New Zealand. This means there will not be a danger of a high nitrate concentration in natural water systems — one of the fears of the Commission for the Environment — according to the Natural Gas Corporation. The commission, in a report on the impact of nitrogenous fertilisers on the New Zealand environment, said that the widespread use of such fertilisers “had the potential for inducing severe environmental problems.”

But the Natural Gas Corporation, which will own and run the proposed plant, regards agriculture as only a part of the potential market for the petrochemical. The corporation’s general manager (Mr R. O’Callahan), said that the output of the

planned plant would be too small for anything other than selective use of nitrogenous fertilisers in farming.

Any moves into the widespread use of the fertiliser would require a larger plant, and would need to be considered very carefully in terms of the consequences for farming. Farming was certainly an area where the use of am-monia-urea could expand greatly, but was not seen as providing the main market for the plant, Mr O’Callahan said.

“When considering the plant, we looked at the present uses of ammoniaurea. We expect that the present market will grow significantly with the security of supplies from a local plant and with the product being offered at competitive prices,” he said. Mr O’Callahan declined to give more details about the potential market for the petrochemical, saying that to do so would be commercially unwise.