Norman disgusted by river stench

KAYAK ROUTE: Greens co-leader Russel Norman said he did not realise how bad the Manawatu River's water quality was.

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It smells like burnt sheep and faeces, the water changes colour, algae grows on the rocks and waterfalls of white, frothy foam pours into it.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman came to see first-hand how sick the Manawatu River is yesterday.

He had read the statistics and heard the claims that Manawatu's River was one of the most polluted rivers in New Zealand.

But it was not until he got into a kayak, paddled up to the pipes where the pollution pours straight into the river, that he realised how dire the water quality was.

The discharge coming from New Zealand Pharmaceuticals looked the worst, he said.

"All this white foam was pouring out non-stop, it smelt very odd, like burnt sheep.

"It's sad because just down stream from it is this deep, slow moving area that would be a fantastic swimming hole but who would want to swim in that."

New Zealand Pharmaceuticals was granted consent in 2008 to continue to discharge up to 240 cubic metres a day of process water, up to 2400 cumecs a day of cooling water and up to 3200 cumecs a day of stormwater from the plant to the Manawatu River.

Managing director Richard Garland said the discharge was nothing in comparison to the runoff from farms.

"When people look at the point discharge they say `horror horror'," he said.

"They can spend a lot of time criticising point discharge and miss the major issue."

New Zealand Pharmaceuticals was spending $1.5 million to make a ten-fold reduction in waste going into the river, he said.

Palmerston North City Council's discharge also smelt, Mr Norman said.

The council discharges up to 42,000 cumecs of treated wastewater each day during dry weather. It has an unspecified wet weather discharge limit.

Palmerston North Mayor Jono Naylor said people had to remember that the sewage made up a small proportion of the overall river flow.

"At low flows our discharge at most makes up 1.5 per cent of the river flow and in high river flows it makes 0.3 per cent."

But Mr Norman said no-one should be allowed to pollute into the river.

"It belongs to everybody.

"Whether you are a dairy farmer or industrial production, you have to find a way to treat your discharge that does not result in polluting the river."

The river could be a fantastic resource for the community, he said.

"I'm sure if the councils asked people in Palmerston [North] if they would be willing to pay an extra couple of bucks in their rates to clean up the river, they would.

"People care about the environment."

Last year, research by the Cawthron Institute revealed that on one measure of water quality, the Manawatu was the worst of more than 300 rivers around the world.

When the Ministry for the Environment released river water quality league tables for the first time in October 2009, the Manawatu was rated in the bottom 10 of 60 sites on all three measures of river health.

These are nutrient level, water quality for recreational use, and biological health.

- © Fairfax NZ News