I've just been on the phone to a friend who has farmed for ever here in Southland. He runs sheep. His neighbours are dairying and they are HUGE. Following the last downpour (thanks - we needed that!) he went out to check his stock, passed by the creek he used to drink from as a boy, make little dams to herd cockabullies into or catch crawlies from, and saw that it was flowing 'as black as the ink we used at school'.
*Up-date
Shortly after posting this ... post, I received an email from the alert folk at Environment Southland:
Hi Robert
I tried to ring you this afternoon after seeing your blog about the "black stuff" in the river - checked with our compliance staff who said they hadn't received any reports of the problem.
Please ask your sheep farming friend to call the 24-hour pollution response hotline asap and report the problem so our staff can follow it up - and feel free to spread the word among your other friends that they
should report all instances of pollution promptly. We publicise it regularly in Enviroweek, in our newsletters and other ads but a personal reminder from you would help.
Regards
Michele
That's impressive monitoring in more than one way!
