NO POLLUTION OF RIVERS

Southland Times, Issue 24230, 13 September 1940, Page 6

NO POLLUTION OF RIVERS

DISCHARGE FROM LINEN FLAX FACTORIES

Every precaution to ensure that the discharge from the linen flax factories which are to be erected in Southland will not pollute fishing streams is being taken by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The director of the linen flax development branch of the department (Mr J. W. Hadfield) writing to the executive of the Southland Acclimatization Society stated in a letter which was received by the executive last night, that it was the processing water liberated into small streams that was likely to injure fish. At Otautau discharge water would run round the hill for some distance before discharging into a swamp and it would be regulated so that it was spread over the 24 hours of the day. This swamp fed a stream which later entered a river, by which time, it was expected, the discharge would be innocuous.

“The processing water from the tanks is not poisonous in the ordinary sense, but it is highly deoxidized, which means that when it enters a small stream it absorbs from the stream a fairly large amount of oxygen,” said Mr Hadfield. “As fish require oxygen for breathing they are liable to suffer from suffocation if they are confined within the limits of the discharge of the processing water.” Mr Hadfield said that every possible precaution had been taken. Should it be found that the precautions were insufficient, the processing water would be aerated before it entered any fishing river.

Mr Eustace Russell said that discharges from dairy factories and meat works did not directly pollute the streams. The discharge settled on the bottom of rivers and when in the dry season the water levels became low, putrefaction of the discharge took place and this process de-oxidized the water and thereby affected the fish. Satisfaction with the steps which were being taken by the department was expressed.