Christchurch City Council and Environment Canterbury have responded to an incident at a Blenheim Road business where liquid waste material has been discharged to land where it could enter local waterways. Photo: Supplied / ECan
People in Christchurch are being asked stay away from the Curletts Road stormwater basin due to a waste spill.
It is believed the spill, from a business on Blenheim Road, may have leaked into the basin, and waterways upstream of it. It is the second spill in six weeks.
Environment Canterbury said it was working with Christchurch City Council staff and the Blenheim Road business to ensure the discharge was contained, and the source of the contamination was removed.
"It is likely that a mix of industrial waste products has affected waterways close to the discharge site," the regional council said.
"We will also be testing downstream where Curletts Basin flows into the Heathcote River/Ōpawaho to better understand how far the discharge has spread."
Advocacy group Ōpāwaho Heathcote River Network secretary Malcolm Long said it was easy for accidental spills to cause a lot of damage to waterways.
The discharge last month in Woolston killed more than 500 fish, Long said.
"The council are working very hard on both these incidents to try and get to the bottom of them," he said.
"They're not simple, the spill up in Hornby is perhaps easier because it's possible to detect where it came from, but the other one's much more difficult to find a source and then to trace it to any person or persons."
Ten eels had also showed some form of exposure, but it was not clear if that was related to the spills.
Long said people should be very careful when handling potential contaminants.
"As guardians of the river, we're really concerned with any contaminant that enters the river that ought not to be there," he said.
"There will always be accidents, we're humans, obviously we want people to be really careful about handling of contaminants that could cause pollution of the river."
Public information could also be crucial to solving waterway pollution, and Long said anyone who saw anything unusual should call the council.
The effects of the current spill were not yet known, but water samples had been taken and the area was being checked daily.
The council said the spills were not linked and it was unlikely the current one would spread into the river.