A post by Russel Norman on the Greens’ blog.
“As we came around a bend on the river we came across a series of large steel beams sticking out of the water – “The Taniwha of the Tarawera”…
These steel posts anchor the discharge pipes for the Kawerau pulp and paper mills. A series of pipes run underwater, pumping out 30 tonnes a day of platinum cobalt (1) and god-knows-what, turning black what is usually a clear river upstream. It is the pollution coming out of these pipes that have given the Tarawera the nickname “The Black Drain”.
… As we floated above the discharge pipes in the raft it wasn’t hard to imagine the presence of a dark malign taniwha sitting below the surface spewing forth poison into the river.”
