The convenience of having an Avon

Christchurch folk like to brag about theirs being The Garden City, and their Avon River being something special.

Yes, it is special. It’s a very special waterway into which the city authorities can spill sewage.

David Haywood, at Public Address, tells of a discomforting discovery while he was cycling with his son along the towpath.

He noticed a poster nailed to a tree.

The poster was a Resource Consent Application notification. The application was to allow the city council to continue dumping “groundwater, wastewater and stormwater” into the Avon and Heathcote rivers (the two rivers than run through Christchurch city) for the next 25 years.

Well, I know about groundwater and stormwater — fair enough. But what about “wastewater”? Surely this wasn’t some sort of euphemism for sewage?

I phoned the council.

Haywood sets out the conversation whereby he learned from a council official that, yes, when he flushes his bog, he contributes to the wastewater. It is untreated, and the council is seeking a resource consent to dump raw sewage in the Avon River for the next 25 years.

The deadline for submissions expired yesterday.