Day 243 - 02 May 96 - Page 20
1 A. It helps, certainly, yes.
2
3 Q. You have to use a lot of water?
4 A. No, the water is being minimised in the dish washer
5 systems that I have some knowledge of, which is very
6 recent.
7
8 Q. Generally, in the western world, at least, water is heated
9 by electricity?
10 A. Yes.
11
12 Q. You would also have to use some detergent, would you not,
13 or something like that?
14 A. Yes, certainly.
15
16 Q. Are there environmental detriments to be observed from the
17 use of large quantities of detergent?
18 A. They are, but again they are local and controllable.
19 The major effects will be in a sewage system which has its
20 own, you know, you can measure how much you are discharging
21 and, indeed, I am given figures where the evidence -- you
22 know, they are trying to -- they can tell me how much they
23 are discharging and it is easy to measure; whereas, if
24 there is a discharge due to the production of paper
25 somewhere, it is much less easy to obtain, much more
26 expensive research is required. It is much more difficult
27 for me to understand those impacts and do anything about
28 them. So again there is a need for more local materials
29 and control of them.
30
31 Q. Miss Link, have you studied, for example, the history of
32 the River Rhine in Germany?
33 A. I know that, having a very long river, they have had to
34 be very conscious of influx at all points and some very
35 serious incidents have happened. I think that has
36 increased their environmental awareness.
37
38 Q. Yes, indeed.
39 A. I think it is lower in this country because we do not
40 have rivers like that.
41
42 Q. Do you know what its biological status is at the moment,
43 the River Rhine?
44 A. No, I do not know very much about it. I know that it
45 is a source of discharges of organochlorines to the sea, as
46 indeed rivers are in this country.
47
48 Q. It must, must it not, be the repository of large amounts of
49 domestic and industrial waste from all over central Europe?
50 A. Yes, that is right.
51
52 Q. It is, therefore, desirable, is it not, to minimise the
53 amount of such filth that goes into rivers like the Rhine?
54 A. It is desirable to improve sewage treatment and make
55 that also as local as possible, and there are well known
56 means of doing that.
57
58 Q. Sewage treatment itself uses resources, does it not?
59 A. Yes, but again there are alternative methods of sewage
60 treatment involving biological systems which may prove to
