Botanic Gardens duck pond pollution
Left over paint tossed into a stormwater drain is likely to be the cause of recent pollution in the Botanic Gardens duck pond and Greater Wellington is keen to find out where it’s coming from.
Greater Wellington’s environmental protection team was alerted to a white discharge in the duck pond on November 27. An environmental protection officer drove to the end of Glen Road in Kelburn and to adjoining streets to try to track the source of the discharge but could not find it.
“Often it is hard to track the source of these incidents unless we know about it really quickly,” Greater Wellington Environmental Protection Team Leader Nic Conland says.
“We are keen for the public’s help to alert us to incidents like this.”
With summer underway, the Environmental Protection team has been kept busy attending to a number of calls over the past month, ranging from car wash and swimming pool cleaning residues to paint in the storm water drains.
Mr Conland said the duck pond incident was a reminder to all residents to take care to ensure their DIY activities don’t affect waterways. It is illegal for anything other than rainwater to go into stormwater drains.
“We are keen to remind people that what goes into the drain on the street outside their house finds its way into our rivers and eventually into the sea and can make it harder for aquatic life to survive and flourish.
“Stormwater pollution in the urban environment can be highly visible – especially in a place like the Botanic Gardens – and it doesn’t leave visitors with a good impression.
If you see somebody dumping waste into the storm water drain call the Greater Wellington Environmental Protection Hotline, 0800 496 734. See more tips at www.bethedifference.gw.govt.nz. For more about our rivers and streams visit www.gw.govt/monitoring