Selwyn Times: May 05, 2021
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<strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>May</strong> 5 <strong>2021</strong><br />
10<br />
NEWS<br />
CANTERBURY authorities are<br />
offering free drinking water tests<br />
for homeowners in a bid to check<br />
for harmful levels of nitrate.<br />
The testing, 1-4pm at Darfield<br />
Library today and at Leeston Library<br />
on <strong>May</strong> 18, was the idea of<br />
the <strong>Selwyn</strong> Waihora Water Zone<br />
Committee.<br />
It follows a recent study<br />
showing between 300,000 and<br />
800,000 New Zealanders were<br />
exposed to potentially dangerous<br />
amounts of nitrate.<br />
Reports showed 3215 people<br />
drank water with levels so high<br />
health authorities required regular<br />
testing to ensure it did not<br />
slip above the recommended safe<br />
threshold.<br />
Residents using private bores<br />
are advised to take at least 500ml<br />
of their tap water in a clean bottle,<br />
rinsed with water, not detergent.<br />
Zone committee members<br />
will be there to offer advice.<br />
Co-chair Fiona McDonald said<br />
the main risks were to pregnant<br />
mothers and bottle-fed babies.<br />
There was also a potential link<br />
between even quite low levels of<br />
nitrate and bowel cancer.<br />
“Those are the two things,<br />
particularly the media attention<br />
that the colon cancer research<br />
has had lately, that’s really raised<br />
the level of attention on nitrate<br />
levels, and we’re hoping to have<br />
really good engagement and really<br />
good turnout in these rural<br />
communities,” she said.<br />
Unlike town supply drinking<br />
water, which was regularly tested<br />
by councils for things like nitrate<br />
levels, these bores – serving<br />
451,403 people nationally – were<br />
the responsibility of homeowners<br />
to get tested.<br />
It was also thought the water<br />
in these mostly shallow bores<br />
presented more of a risk, with estimates<br />
19,960 could have nitrate<br />
levels exceeding World Health<br />
Organisation limits.<br />
McDonald said the tests would<br />
be indicative only and it would<br />
then be up to homeowners to get<br />
their water tested at a laboratory.<br />
“It concerns us, individual well<br />
owners don’t necessarily have<br />
good knowledge about their own<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Have your bore water tested for nitrates<br />
CONCERN: Springston South resident<br />
Mike Glover is pleased the <strong>Selwyn</strong><br />
Waihora Water Zone Committee,<br />
represented by co-chair Fiona<br />
McDonald has picked up the baton on<br />
water testing for nitrates.<br />
water supplies. The council has<br />
really good knowledge about the<br />
water supplies it provides, but it’s<br />
those individual owners [where]<br />
it can really vary.”<br />
The testing followed an<br />
informal effort by a group of<br />
concerned residents to let private<br />
well users know about the state<br />
of their water.<br />
Last August, Springston South<br />
homeowner Mike Glover got<br />
together with the Federation of<br />
Freshwater Anglers, who had<br />
managed to get hold of specialised<br />
equipment needed to test<br />
nitrate levels. They invited people<br />
along to have their water tested,<br />
for a gold coin donation.<br />
Eighty turned up including one<br />
woman who was shocked to discover<br />
the water from her spring<br />
was potentially dangerous.<br />
“She was in tears. She said: ‘I<br />
tell everyone about the water, it<br />
tastes so good’, and I said that’s<br />
the bloody thing, nitrate, you<br />
can’t taste it, you can’t smell it,<br />
you can’t see it. You know if it<br />
made the water go red, all the<br />
rivers in Canterbury would be<br />
running pink.”<br />
Glover was glad the water zone<br />
committee was now picking up<br />
the baton.<br />
“It’s the start of something<br />
perhaps. I think they may be<br />
surprised at the level of not just<br />
interest, I think there will be a lot<br />
of concern shown and possibly a<br />
little bit of anger.”<br />
Federation of Freshwater Anglers<br />
president and Canterbury<br />
resident Peter Trolove said the<br />
problem was a case of the region’s<br />
chickens coming home to<br />
roost after two decades of unfettered<br />
growth in dairying.<br />
“People are suddenly saying:<br />
‘I don’t want to live here’.<br />
And so they’re looking to sell<br />
up,” Trolove said.<br />
“The <strong>Selwyn</strong> region’s the<br />
fastest growing area in New<br />
Zealand. Well, we might have<br />
people departing at the same<br />
rate when they realise that they<br />
might be drinking water that’s<br />
not good for them.”<br />
McDonald said further testing<br />
may be done, depending on<br />
the level of demand this time<br />
around. – RNZ<br />
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