PURITY OF WATER.
GRAVE CHARGES MADE. QUESTION OF PUBLIC HEALTH. SOURCE OF WAITARA’S SUPPLY. Allegations of allowing drainage and refuse to flow into the Waiongona stream so as to pollute the water and render it dangerous to the people of Waitara formed the basis of charges laid against the Inglewood Co-operative Bacon Co., Ltd., by the Health Department and heard at the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court before Mr. A- M. Mowlem, S.M., yesterday. The first charge was that the company did pollute, so as to be dangerous to health, the waiter supply of the borough of Waitara, contrary to the form of the statute. They were also charged •under the borough of Waitara by-laws, that they did permit and suffer drainage and refuse from its land and premises to flow into and to be deposited in that portion of the watercourse knwn as the Waiongona stream, from the source ! thereof to a point half a mile below the j intake of the water supply of the council of the borough of Waitara. Mr. C. R. Stead, of Waitara, prosecuted, and Mr- R. H. Quilliam appeared for defendants.
The principal witness for the prosecution was F. Swindells, Health Inspector for the Taranaki district, who deposed to having inspected the factory on April 7, in company with Mr. Kendrick, inspector for the borough of Waitara. In the inspection chamber, the witness said there were found portions of entrails and trimmings from the slaughter-house, while on the bottom a sack had been placed so as to prevent the drainage going down to a coke filter- In consequence of .this the whole of the drainage from the slaughter-house was discharged from the inspection chamber by an open overflow direct into the stream. Further along the bank of the river there was a shed, and beyond this the washing of carts which had brought pigs to the factory took place. All refuse from the carts was left just where it was swept out of the carts and was there at the time of the inspection. The ground was quite sodden with the water which had been used for the washing.
CONDITIONS DESCRIBED. Witness also dealt with an open overflow from the impounded water supply under the receiving yards, which was crossed by a culvert, and here a quantity of skin and bristles was seen on the bank and in the overflow. It appeared as though a barrowful of this material had been tipped into the culvert at thio point, which was about 25ft from the bed of the river. Water was running continuously down the overflow, and any matter deposited there would be immediately washed into the stream. There appeared to be no other use for the overflow. On the other side of the overflow, and at the top of the bank, there was a considerable deposit of bristles, a sample of which was submitted to the court. From the receiving yard there was an overflow of water from a trough, to which the pigs had access, which was (irarmitp into rm I'lraiiH. rrtnn CTTC <llgester house a drain to an open overflow carried liquid away direct to the stream. Witness questioned the man in charge of the digester house as to what happened to the digester liquor, and he said it first went into a tank and thence by drain to the stream. At the pig yards there wore four openings, two of which led from concrete drinking troughs, by which drainage matter gained access to swampy ground and thence into the open channel of the impounded water supply, and by means of the overflow into the stream. On the top of the tunnel which conveyed water from the stream at the rear, a number of pits had been dug about Bft by 4ft, the depth of which witness could not ascertain. They were filled with raw entrails having had no treatment whatever. The percolation from this matter would be downward into the water tunnel, and also into the swampy ground. None of the pits had been covered with earth, and were quite exposed. He estimated there was about 2ft of earth between the bottom of the pits and the bottom of the tunnel. In a paddock at the back there was another pit 44ft by 4ft deep, quite open for its entire length.
WATER DISCOLORED. On reaching the bridge which crosses the main road he noticed a deposit of animal refuse on both sides of the bridgeThis was approximately three yards long by a yard wide. It consisted of trimmings and possibly entrails. It was then noticed there was a discoloration of water in the stream, and he called Mr. Kendrick s attention to it, as it covered the stream. He proceeded about a .quarter of a mile further down the stream, and observed that the discoloration took half an hour to pass the point. He tried to find the cause of the discoloration and found some fat and a piece of skin. He pointed out to the manager what had been discovered, and the manager admitted the position was bad, but offered as an excuse that he had been busy. When witness said he would have to report on what he had seen, he was asked if the report could be held over so as to give him a chance to clean Tip. When reminded by him of a sack that had been found in the inspection chamber on a previous occasion, the manager said it was no use beating about the bush; the sack had been placed there because of the difficulty of getting men to clean out the filter. He stated the filter-bed was at the time quite consolidated, showing it had not been used for some time-Cross-examined by Mr. Quilliam, witness said thv. manager told him they had done all that the Waitara inspector had ordered. As to whether the. pollution was creating a danger to the health of people using the water from the stream he left to medical men to state. Witness said there were several methods of detecting pollution. Asked as to whether or not there had been actual pollution, the witness said it was selfevident. He admitted not having had an analysis made of the water of the stream. He said That the health returns of the borough of Waitara were slightly less favorable than other districts in Taranaki. Ho <lid not say it was attributable to the water supply. He knew the Waiongona -iti stream, but was not aware that it took the bulk of the surface drainage from the Inglewood borough- It joined the Waiongona about three miles above the waterworks intake. Most surface drainage carried a percentage of offensive matter. Regarding drainage for dairy factories, especially whey, it was looked upon as particularly oi -nxious. He did not know of any drainage front septic tanks which percolated into the Waiongona-iti.
At; the intake to the Waitara waterworks there was no filter, but a settling tank. He did not think filters .were a. . necessity. A SUBSEQUENT INSPECTION. •Continuing, the witness said, he had found no evidence of eny putriflpd matter in the stream. He said the liquid from the digester was not offensive at the time it was flowing into the river, when he made the inspection. The blood was fresh then- Witness said there was a slaughterhouse on the banks of the Waiongona at which the conditions were unsatisfactory. He was not prepared to say the conditions were worse than at the bacon factory. Re-examined by Mr. Stead, the witness said he had made another inspection on June 12, when a lot of refuse had been cleared away and the v. cr in the impounding chamber had beet, lowered by three feet. The stream was still being polluted, though not to the same extent. Lawrence T. Kendrick, inspector for the borough of Waitara, who accompanied the health inspector on his inspection, gave corroborative evidence. MEDICAL TESTIMONY. Dr. Monk, medical officer for • the Wanganui-Taranaki district, said he had visited the Bacon Company’s factory on June 20- He would not call the premises clean, and there were some parts which could be said to be dirty. He said in his opinion what he saw being j emptied into the stream would, under certain circumstances, be dangerous to health. On ‘the day of his inspection it was not a killing day and in consequence no crude matter was going into the river. He understood there had • been no killing for several days and so the premises were no doubt cleaner titan on killing days. He stated that per- ’ ‘ sons used to that particular water would not be affected by the pollution, but 1 anyone unused to it might be affected. ’ * Such pollution would cause certain ill--1! health. The fact that there had been ' i little or no disease in Waitara did not i show that there wiK.no pollution or that 1 the water was pure. From his experi- ■ ence in public health matters, he said he had inspected many bacon factories, but most of them were much cleaner ’ than the one in this case, at which'the ’ best use was not made of the appliances available for preventing pollution. He ‘ considered the company had been very ’ grossly careless in regard to the dis- ! posal of refuse from the factory. In regard to the question of an analysis of the water, he said in this case the pollution was so self-evident, that analysis was quite unnecessary.
To Mr. Quilliam: There had been nothing in the health returns to indicate that the water supply of Waitara was not all it ought to 'be. He had no report before on this factory. Other evidence was given by Geo. Fear, health inspector for the borough of Wanganui, and formerly occupying a similar position with the Waitara Borough Council. CASE FOR THE DEFENCE. The first witness for the defence was Arthur Morton, farmer, Egmont Village, who said he had been chairman of the defendant company since its inception in 1899. He had no requisition from the Health Department. Mr. Feaver had given particulars of his requirements- Till 1916 all the drainage -went direct into the stream. If any reasonable requisitions were made by proper the health inspector or the Waitara borough inspector, these would be complied with. Fully 20 per cent, of the company’s shareholders were in the Waitara district.
To Mr. Stead: He had no recollection of receiving a notice from Dr. Chesney in 1914, but he would not deny he received such a notice. On being given a copy of the letter he recollected having seen it before. He had no doubt that compliance was made with the request if it was received. He knew the Waitara Borough Council made requisitions in 1916 when the company put in improvements as required by the borough inspector as to the condition of tanks, filter-beds, gratings and so on. He was not aware of any default in their use. That would be a matter for the manager to speak upon. At a distance of six miles from the factory the water was pure. Dr. Valentine had told him that the water would be pure three miles below.
Robert Daniel Climie, civil engineer, Inglewood, said he had measurements of the drainage flowing from the factory to the stream. Flowing into the riverbed there were 40 gallons of milt, most of which was pure water. He should say there was not more than half a gallon of foreign matter a minute flowing into the cokebed when killing operations were on. There were 3,000,000 gallons flowing down the river daily. Thedilution carrying it was about 1 in 50.000 or probably more- The velocity of the river differed; it was a rapid mountain stream. From the factory to the Waitara borough intake the distance of the river was between .6 or 7 miles. He had never seen any large refuse under the bridge, nor was there any offensive smell. There was never an accumulation at any time on the bank of any offensive or putrid matter.
EFFECT IN WATER. Dr. O. Farris, Inglewood, said up to recently he was medical officer of health in the Wellington district. He had inspected the bacon factory and the Waiongona river several times. The dilution was so long and the course so long he considered the factory would have ho effect on the drinking-water at WaitaraAn analysis was the only logical means of finding whether pollution existed; otherwise it was all surmise. Mr. Quilliam suggested that the only way to see whether pollution existed was to take a scientific analysis, both chemical and bacteriological, of the river. Continuing, witness said whilst officer of health he had no anxiety as to. the health of the people of Waitara. Mr. Stead, in cross-examining witness, asked him what caused him to leave the health department. Mr. Quilliam rose to object, claiming that the witness was being insulted. The Magistrate said he did not consider the question insulting, the doctor indicating that he would prefer to answer it if the matter did not i appear in the Press. The Magistrate said the question did not concern the case and he had no control over the Press. Other evidence of a medical nature- was given by witness- When he went out of the box Mr. Quilliam indicated that he had still three witnesses to call and the case was adjourned till 10 o’clock this morning.
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Taranaki Daily News, 1 July 1922, Page 7
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2,284PURITY OF WATER. Taranaki Daily News, 1 July 1922, Page 7
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