Just under 3000 litres of oil leaked from a factory fire have been removed from Canterbury rivers.
The oil collection was completed earlier this week. Photo: ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY
The Sutton Tools manufacturing plant in Kaiapoi caught fire nearly two weeks ago, flushing quenching fluid into the Kaiapoi, Waimakariri and Ruataniwha Rivers.
Meanwhile, a Fire and Emergency NZ spokesperson said work is continuing with the insurance investigators and the business owners to determine the cause of the fire.
Canterbury Regional Council's on-scene commander Emma Parr said oil collection was completed on Tuesday.
"The containment and recovery phase of the response, and all sites, were demobilised [last] Wednesday 2 February," she said.
"Some residual sheen has been absorbed in a boom that remained in place up until Tuesday 8 February."
Parr also said teams have cleared two boat ramps on the Kaiapoi River.
"Work to scrape and replace oiled stones and debris was carried out at the Kaiapoi River rowing club boat ramp and the public boat ramp by the swing bridge on Wednesday this week."
"This work has significantly reduced the remobilisation of oil in that area."
While initial work has shown positive results, Emma Parr said there were still some areas the public should avoid.
Monitoring will still be undertaken every other day and the public was asked to continue reporting oil or oiled wildlife.
"We continue to ask that oil or oiled wildlife sightings be reported to our incident response team on 0800 765 588 or by using the Snap Send Solve App, with specific details of the location."
