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New Zealand... polluted?
Nov. 28th, 2004 09:08 pmIn today's paper, I was surprised to read the following about New Zealand, in an article on why Oregon needs to maintain its environmental vigilance.
"Our family moved there for most of 2003 while my husband was on a sabbatical, and although we loved much about New Zealand, its environmental laws (of lack thereof) reminded me of where Oregon was heading in the 1960s.
"Native forests are sparse, protected only in national parks. Remaining forestland consists mostly of commercial forests planted with Monterey pine and Douglas fir - species originally imported from the U.S. Everywhere else is horribly overgrazed by New Zealand's famous 40 million sheep, which tread and eliminate freely in all the country's rivers and streams.
"As a result, city water supplies often are heavily treated and only marginally drinkable. We lived in Dunedin, a lovely old city on the south end of South Island. After the tap water made all of us sick, we discovered where many citizens get their drinking water: from a public spigot on the side of the Speight's Brewery building downtown, a spigot that taps the brewery's artesian well. All day, any day of the week, there is a steady procession of people to and from that spigot, each of them hauling a 10-gallon plastic water container.
"I wouldn't recommend swimming at the city's public beaches, either, because Dunedin's sewage (after being filtered once for the largest solids) is pumped directly into the ocean not too far away.
"In the winter, if you're lucky enough to live in one of the higher of Dunedin's hillside neighborhoods, you'll avoid the blanket of black fog that settles over the lower part of the city. (It's even worse in Christchurch.) The smog is from coal stoves, a common home heating fuel."
( The full article, by Heather Henderson )
"Our family moved there for most of 2003 while my husband was on a sabbatical, and although we loved much about New Zealand, its environmental laws (of lack thereof) reminded me of where Oregon was heading in the 1960s.
"Native forests are sparse, protected only in national parks. Remaining forestland consists mostly of commercial forests planted with Monterey pine and Douglas fir - species originally imported from the U.S. Everywhere else is horribly overgrazed by New Zealand's famous 40 million sheep, which tread and eliminate freely in all the country's rivers and streams.
"As a result, city water supplies often are heavily treated and only marginally drinkable. We lived in Dunedin, a lovely old city on the south end of South Island. After the tap water made all of us sick, we discovered where many citizens get their drinking water: from a public spigot on the side of the Speight's Brewery building downtown, a spigot that taps the brewery's artesian well. All day, any day of the week, there is a steady procession of people to and from that spigot, each of them hauling a 10-gallon plastic water container.
"I wouldn't recommend swimming at the city's public beaches, either, because Dunedin's sewage (after being filtered once for the largest solids) is pumped directly into the ocean not too far away.
"In the winter, if you're lucky enough to live in one of the higher of Dunedin's hillside neighborhoods, you'll avoid the blanket of black fog that settles over the lower part of the city. (It's even worse in Christchurch.) The smog is from coal stoves, a common home heating fuel."
( The full article, by Heather Henderson )