Kaiapoi given sewage discharge permission

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 3

Kaiapoi given sewage discharge permission

An application by the Kaiapoi Borough Council to discharge up to 5630 cubic metres of treated sewage a day into the Waimakariri River downstream of Ferry Road, has been approved by the resources committee of the North Canterbury Catchment Board. The right is to be exercised only when groundwater conditions in an adjoining irrigation area are such that discharging of effluent on to it would cause surface flooding resulting in pasture damage. In his report to yesterday’s meeting, the board’s resource planning manager, Mr R. W. Cathcart, said reconstruction work had recently been done on the irrigation area and this should reduce significantly occasions when discharges into the Waimakariri River were necessary. The committee approved the application subject to a number of conditions: The land irrigation area must be managed in a way that ensures that the maximum area of land is used for effluent disposal, and the board must be notified when the groundwater is approaching a level when this right would be used. The Kaiapoi Borough Council should keep a re-

cord of days when discharges are made into the river and no discharge must be made on days when the dissolved oxygen content of the effluent is less than a required minimum level. Applications by the Akaroa County Council to discharge treated, and raw sewage in eniergencies, into Red House Bay were also approved by the committee. Mr Cathcart said the Akaroa council’s application to discharge up to 600 cubic metres of treated effluent a day into the bay replaced a previous water right, and similar conditions applied. Raw sewage could be discharged from four overflow pipes adjacent to Akaroa Township in emergencies only. The pipes are near Britmart Memorial, opposite the new fire station site, above the mouth of Balguerie Creek between Dalys Wharf and the recreation reserve, and at Grehan Creek behind the Grant Hotel. Mr Cathcart believed the use of the emergency discharges would be limited to times of excessive rainfall, or prolonged power cuts in which the storage capacity of the sewerage system would be exceeded. Conditions of the rights are that an effective warn-

ing system be installed to give early notice of pump failure, that the pumps be inspected regularly to minimise this, and that the Medical Officer of Health and the Regional Water Board be told of all sewage overflows. In recommending that the Christchurch Drainage Board be granted a right to discharge up to 17,270 cubic metres of stormwater a day into McCormacks Bay from a proposed residential subdivision at Redcliffs, members of the committee expressed some concern that this right was for the completed subdivision only. Mr Cathcart said the Drainage Board had not yet applied for a right to ccver the development stage of the subdivision, during which earth disturbance and high runoff were likely to increase the sedimentation of McCormacks Bay. The bay is a small part of the Avon-Heathcote EstuThere were no objections to any of these applications and they will go before the full Catchment Board next Friday. At a special meeting yesterday morning the North Canterbury Catchment Board confirmed its 26 per cent rate increase for the next 12 months.