Fears for penny divers' health 'scaremongering'

Mike Watson - 

During his summer holidays in the 1980s, Wally Lee would dive for pennies thrown by tourists into Puarenga Stream at Rotorua's historic Whakarewarewa Village.

Mr Lee, of Rotorua, would swim to the bottom of the murky stream and collect the coin, placing it in his mouth as he surfaced.

Invariably, he would become ill for several days afterwards, he said. So too would his cousins and friends who lined the bridge across the stream to carry on the tradition.

But Mr Lee – now 38 and spokesman for Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao iwi – is warning the next generation of divers to stay out of the water because of concerns that the water in the stream still contained traces of harmful chemicals that were used to treat timber upstream at the Waipa Mill until the mid 1980s.

The current owners of the mill say the claims are unsubstantiated scaremongering.

Mr Lee said the condition of the stream, in a big tourism centre, was contrary to New Zealand's clean green image.

"It's a very serious problem and we have known for decades that swimming in the water will make you sick," he said.

"Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao iwi have tried to say something about it, but we have been ignored by authorities.

"We've never been informed of how serious the problem really is."

Mr Lee said the stream, which flows past the Waipa Mill and Whakarewarewa Village to Lake Rotorua, had been polluted since the 1950s.

For almost three decades, the state-owned mill disposed pentachlorophenol, or PCP, used for treating timber, into the water until its use was banned worldwide in 1988.

In 2003, the mill's new owners, Red Stag Timber, complied with consents to clean up the site.

Mr Lee said there was concern that chemicals from historic dump sites in the forest nearby were still contaminating the groundwater and leaching into the stream.

Red Stag environmental manager Tim Charleson said claims that there were still high levels of chemicals and pollutants in the stream were "unsubstantiated".

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