Hurry Save The Murray!

Last week the community monitors were recording pH levels on the Finniss at “hot spots”.
Finniss Fun

Today John Yelland and Diane Bell visited the “acid pools” near the mouth of the Currency Creek. The Currency Creek has disconnected from the Goolwa Channel and is no longer running water.

Diane and John took five sets of readings of pH levels at pits (CC1a-e) from 88 metres from the banks to the water’s edge, about 280 metres from the bank.

Following the familiar pattern for acid sulfate soils (ASS), they found that closer to the bank the pH was low and as they moved closer to the water body, the pH increased.

Go to the Community Monitoring page and scroll down to our findings for the Currency Creek. Findings

Our most surprising finding was that the soil in the red depressions near the water’s edge was not acid, in fact it was alkaline.

The water in the pools near the water’s edge was acid.

Our suggestions
1. Continue monitoring to track whether the acid in the soil is being mobilised.
2. Do not disturb the soils near the banks and expose potential ASS
3. Mulch exposed areas
4. Lime upstream

First stop the Finniss Ford
We gathered at noon at the Finniss Ford: Marian Thompson, Bev and Alex Stone, Karyn Bradford, John Yelland, Carole Richardson, David Knappstein, Marie-Claire Levi, Olwyn Barwick, Sue Hogben and Diane Bell.

The rain was soft. Marie-Claire demonstrated how umbrellas can hold water as well as keep a person dry. Spare gum-boots were shared. Alex, Bev, Olywn and Sue managed without gumboots as we walked John’s plank. Next time industrial strength gum boots for monitoring in the mud.

The Finniss Ford was a healthy pH 7.4 (pH 7 is neutral).

Next stop Wally’s Landing

The Waterwatch team has records that stretch back many years for the catchment and more recently our local monitors have been testing the water at the various sites on the Finniss River and Currency Creek, in particular at the Ford on the Finniss, Wally’s Landing and random locations. The readings have always indicated alkaline rather than acid flows but a recent Press Release of Minister Maywald (12/05/09) stated “Recent rainfall has mobilised this acid in a creek bed that feeds into the Finniss River catchment near Wally’s Landing.”

The banks of the river at Wally’s Landing were acid but as we tested at regular intervals between the bank and the running water, the pH increased and the Finniss River was pH 7.4.

Carole Richardson showed us how to test in zones one (pH 6.5) two (pH 6.5) and three (pH 6.6).

The Creek and Wetland
When we tracked further upstream into the wetland, we found the creek was acid (pH 3.9). The water in the cracks along the banks was pH 4.5. This appears to indicate that the source of the acid was in the newly rewet cracked clay in the creek bed rather than from the banks.
The rain has certainly mobilised the acid in this creek and the pools through which it is flowing are toxic. However, by the time the water had joined with the anabranch of the Finniss River (below Wally’s Landing) the acid had been neutralised.

John Yelland tested the water.

Ultra-fine grained limestone
We then visited the site, several hundred metres downstream, where lime has been mounded in the river. The turtle tracks we had seen the day before were disappearing under the mud tide on the downside of the lime embankment.

John Yelland testing the water below the lime banks

Turtle tracks in the lime

The Lime bank
Above the lime the pH was 7.5 and below was 9.

What can be done?
The immediate problem is the acid in the creek that flows into the anabranch of the Finniss River below Wally Landing and above the lime site. We suggest that be managed as a problem site.
* Don’t let it dry out in first place. That advice has not been acted upon, hence the problem.
* Lime downstream. That is being done and monitored by the EPA.
* Pond the acid water at the site, perhaps with a clay bank and allow creek to bioremediate. This could occur within a matter of weeks but may take longer because the water is cold and very acid. Nonetheless it can be done.
* Mulch: there is ample research to indicate that mulching would work in this region. link, * Revegetate. Plants are already well established on banks and plans are underway with community-based groups to plant more local species.
* We need to see the CSIRO analysis and quantification. Then it will be possible to develop a better strategy.
The oft-repeated concern we have heard from the scientists is, “It’s so variable, it is hard to get a handle on it.” And their frustration in, “This could have been avoided had the area not been allowed to dry out.”

Go to the “Community Monitoring” page for details of our monitoring

Public comments on the “Emergency response for the crisis management-Acid Sulfate Soils in the Goolwa Channel, Finniss River and Currency Creek, South Australia” were submitted to the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts’ by April 22, 2009.

We expected a response from the Federal Minister Peter Garrett by May 6. However, the clock has stopped in order to give the SA Government time to respond to questions from the EPBC in Canberra.

Many concerned citizens with local knowledge and expertise regarding Acid Sulfate Soils provided critiques of the proposal (EPBC 2009/4833) for weirs and regulators. However, unlike public comments on Environmental Impact Statements, the submissions received with respect to Referral are not posted on the EPBC website.

The Executive Summary of submission by the River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group, summarises many of the issues raised in other submissions.

1. The Referral purports to be an emergency response but it is further evidence of mismanagement and lack of an integrated holistic plan for the River, Lakes and Coorong. The proposal is ill conceived and will not achieve its stated goals, rather it will exacerbate an already dire situation.

2. The impact of the proposed action on matters of NES will extend far beyond the footprint of the embankments/dams/weirs/bunds/regulators. The blocking of the fresh water flows from the Finniss River and Currency Creek, their diversion into the newly created “Barrage weir pool” and the pumping from Lake Alexandrina into the pool will effectively sacrifice Lake Alexandrina as a fresh water system.

3. The threat of Acid Sulfate Soils (ASS) is not a sufficient rationale for the action.

• The scientific data presented on ASS do not support the action;
• There are too many unknown factors re ASS and acidification to
proceed with confidence;
• There are alternatives that are known but have been ignored;
• Recent independent monitoring challenges the severity of ASS.

4. In the absence of a plan for a fresh water recovery, the triggers for removal of the embankments/dams/weirs/bunds/regulators at Clayton and on the Finniss River and Currency Creek are not credible.

5. The proposal relies on fresh water coming down the Finniss River and Currency Creek. For this to be assured there would need to be action taken, including the Water Allocation Plan (WAP) for the Eastern Mt Lofty Ranges, to reduce diversions in the tributaries. Winter rains cannot be relied upon to produce the amount of water needed to fill the proposed weir pool.

6. The proposal should be explicit regarding the water that is to be pumped and impounded in terms of who has rights in that water.

7. A credible alternative to this proposal would include
• an integrated holistic long‐term plan for the Rivers, Lakes and Coorong;
• fresh water options;
• regulation of the upper reaches of the Finniss River and Currency Creek;
• bio‐remediation, mulching, fencing to protect potential ASS;
• local treatments of identified ASS hot spots;
• treatment of the water bodies to stave off acidification;
• further research on soil and water chemistry
• meaningful engagement with local communities.

River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc Submission

Liz Yelland Submission

John Yelland Submission