Canterbury chemical spill: Harrison Spraying Services fined $120,000 for incident that killed hundreds of fish
23 Apr, 2021 04:32 AM
2 minutes to read
Mt Somers. File photo / 123rf
NZ Herald
A Canterbury company has been fined $120,000 for contaminating a Mt Somers waterway, killing hundreds of fish.
Harrison Spraying Services was sentenced on April 21 after earlier pleading guilty to spilling an agrichemical onto land near a stock water race which runs through Mt Somers village, west of Christchurch.
The Canterbury Regional Council said a truck driver for the company was mixing a tank of the chemical with water from the race when it overflowed.
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Mt Somers (file image).
Photo: 123rf
Harrison Spraying Services was sentenced on 21 April, after earlier pleading guilty to spilling an agrichemical onto land near a stock water race which runs through Mt Somers village, west of Christchurch.
The Canterbury Regional Council said a truck driver for the company was mixing a tank of the chemical with water from the race when it overflowed.
The council estimated between 600 to 1000 fish died along a roughly 6-kilometre stretch of the waterway. That included brown trout, common bullies, native kōkopu and kēwai (freshwater crayfish).
Inspections by staff about six months after the incident found that the discharge was still having an effect, with an absence of fish species downstream of where the incident occurred.
However, staff suspected the number could be higher as some areas could not be inspected. Six months after the incident, staff found an absence of fish species downstream of where the contamination occurred. Garry Harrison, owner of the family-run company, said it was a regrettable accident. “It won’t ever happen again,” Harrison told
Stuff. His wife, Sheryl Harrison, said they had been contracting for 22 years and had never had any issues. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it’s happened, and we’ve paid the price,” she said. The stock water race was part of a network managed by the Ashburton District Council, running through Mt Somers village.