by frog
Russel continued his campaign to clean up our waterways yesterday. This time he popped up on Campbell Live to highlight a South Wairarapa farm that had turned some of its land beside a creek into a rubbish dump littered with also sorts of debris including containers that had once stored hazardous material. The creek flows into the Pahaoa River.
I think there’s been a long practice of doing this on farms across the country and I think what we need to do is get the message out there that you can’t do this any more.
It’s not acceptable, and we need the regional council and the minister of the environment to be promoting that message and having enforcement when people do break the rules, like it would appear these people are.
A few hours after Campbell Live’s segment a 20 tonne digger and truck arrived at the farm and both are cleaning the creek up. Funny how the world works.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Thu, June 19th, 2008
Tags: Paheoa River, Rubbish, Russel Norman, Wairarapa, Waste, water
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Can you confirm what I/S said: that the villain was South Wairarapa District Councillor Julie Riddell?
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2008/06/filthy-farmers.html
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The farm is owned by her family trust and the rubbush dump is accessed by a farm road with the name of the councillor’s farm on the gate.
Although I don’t know if she was responsible for the dumping, still a very bad look.
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Oops, missed this bit:
“Several items with the councillor’s family surname written on them were found in the creek, including plastic chemical containers.
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StephenR – Yup, the TV3 news clip I linked to names the same district councillor
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Yeah, don’t really watch clips at work. My god.
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A few hours after Campbell Live’s segment a 20 tonne digger and truck arrived at the farm and both are cleaning the creek up. Funny how the world works.
Excellent. Meanwhile, it also tells us what we need to do about polluting farmers: name and shame them.
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Toad:
By “renaming all our polluted rivers as “drains?. You know, the Mataura Drain, the Manawatu Drain, the Waikato Drain. Problem solved – no polluted rivers any more!”
What is the opposite of serendipidy?
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/16/condemned-lakes.html
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Frog- I was really pleased to see Russel getting some good coverage on this, and it looks like a really successful case of naming and shaming. Hopefully it’s only the first.
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Great work by Russel is this up on Youtube so I can view it.
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Nope, not on Youtube but you can view it here turnip28.
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“A few hours after Campbell Live’s segment a 20 tonne digger and truck arrived at the farm and both are cleaning the creek up.”
Is anyone else wondering where it is now?
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unaha-closp said By “renaming all our polluted rivers as “drains?. You know, the Mataura Drain, the Manawatu Drain, the Waikato Drain. Problem solved – no polluted rivers any more!?
Hey, I thought I posted that only on kiwiblog, not here.
But thanks for bringing it here, and for the Canadian link.
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Thats completely dispicable what they’re doing in Canada. What would they be able to get away with in countries that where the governments aren’t even remotely accountable to the people?
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You mean like Aotearoa New Zealand Sleepy?
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hmm Sleepy governments that aren’t accountable to the people you wouldn’t be implying China with its horible enviromental record by any chance
Thanks for the link Toad.
Off topic but the last few weeks i’ve been comuting into New York city and everyday my bus would drive by the chinese consulate and outside come rain or sun would be the Falun Gong & Free Tibet protestors. Maybe they should be protesting the NZ consulate as well now that we have the FTA.
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StephenR said: Can you confirm what I/S said: that the villain was South Wairarapa District Councillor Julie Riddell?
And here she is on facebook, if yawannabe her “friend”.
Mind you, I think the media coverage might have given her the hint, because seems there are (rather expensive for her) cleanups going on to save face!
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Well do you imagine that the polluter in say Ecuador, India, or yes China would show up and clean up the mess after being shown on TV would you?
They’d at the very least ignore any scrutiny or at worst shoot the whistleblower.
turnip28
Well like I said. Not even remotely. At least of the populace in Canda and New Zealand put enough public pressure on the pollies they’d be forced to take action.
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Good on Russel, but when is he ever going to turn up at people like these
http://www.nzfeatrust.org.nz/content/197/default.aspx
and give them a pat on the back?
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That article didn’t really say anything about water or rivers, but good on them anyway! One would assume that they keep an eye on it, seeing as those two won the Supreme award and all…
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