Environment Canterbury's Pollution Hotline Team responded to 57 incidents during the holiday period, including large outdoor fires, sewage spills and petroleum spills. This is down from 93 site visits over last year’s holiday period.
40 visits were in the North Canterbury and Christchurch area and 17 in South Canterbury.
The Pollution Hotline is a 24 hour, seven day service operated by Environment Canterbury to respond quickly to pollution incidents reported by the community.
Below is a list of incidents and number of site visits during the period of 24/12/2009 - 15/01/2010:
| Incident type |
Number of site visits |
| Domestic Waste Dumping |
3 |
| Odour/Fumes |
2 |
| Industrial process |
10 |
| Petroleum Products |
2 |
| Raw/Treated Sewage |
8 |
| Stockpile raw materials/waste |
3 |
| Water Take (surface water) |
2 |
| Outdoor fire-Residential |
6 |
| Outdoor fire-Rural |
2 |
| Outdoor fire-Industrial |
4 |
Other site visits included some of the following incidents: Dairy farm issues, development/earthworks, high country burning, and septic tanks.
"The success of the Pollution Hotline is dependent on the public and Environment Canterbury working together. We encourage the public to make use of the service and to let us know if they see something out of the ordinary that we should be aware of," says Brett Aldridge, Environment Protection Manager.
For more information contact Brett Aldridge, Environmental Protection Manager, (03) 3717156, 027 482-6994.