FEATURE
Let’s fix the river By Dick O’Hanlon and Keith Shipton
The Wadawurrung name for the Anglesea River is Kuarka Dorla – ‘place to catch mullet’. Friends of the Anglesea River (FOAR) is a local community action group focused on the river’s current state and its sustainable future. The Anglesea estuary is in a poor state – permanently very acidic (pH 4–5) since August 2019, with pH 7 considered neutral. The Salt and Marshy creeks that feed the estuary have consistently measured even more strongly acidic since permanent monitoring was installed in 2016.
ground right through until about 12 years ago when sporadic fish kills became more frequent. If the river previously survived extended dry periods, why did it go permanently bad after the relatively smaller millennium drought? To add to the knowledge we have on fixing the river, data was collected and several theories presented to Professor of Earth Sciences at Melbourne University, Ralf Haese. In his opinion, the acidity problem and reduced flows in the river could not be attributed to changes in rainfall, but ultimately to the huge reduction in local water table levels in the lower swamp areas of Salt and Marshy creeks. This is known as the ‘Cone of Depression’.
This acidity together with the associated high metals concentration means the estuary is effectively devoid of fish life and has safe exposure time limits for human swimmers. Other consequences of acidity are increased mosquitoes because fish aren’t around to eat the larvae, and disturbed caroling patterns and habitats for frogs around the estuary. The large and persistent algal blooms of late last year remain unexplained.
Whose responsibility?
‘Goopburger’ – algal blooms are another indication of the poor health of the Anglesea River.
A few governmental bodies share responsibility for the Anglesea River: ▪ Surf Coast Shire Council ▪ Corangamite Catchment Management Authority ▪ Southern Rural Water ▪ Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning ▪ Environment Protection Authority Victoria ▪ Barwon Water.
These government bodies routinely meet with other interested users of the river in the Anglesea River Working Group chaired by the Surf Coast Shire Council. This structure has resulted in some positive things for the river: for example, the installation of measuring equipment and data collection; the use of an old ALCOA pond for water storage; and a myriad of studies and reports. FOAR believes this arrangement doesn’t address the ongoing degradation of the river and its creeping acidification. An examination of rainfall data for this catchment from the Wensleydale weather station indicates that there were
To promote this new viewpoint, FOAR was formed after a public meeting in December last year and has since attracted more than 300 members.
FOAR has contacted Southern Rural Water (SWA), which is charged with approving licences for extraction of water. SWA is assembling a committee of experts to examine the evidence and review the single computer hydrogeological model of the affected area. ALCOA and Barwon Water have separately contracted experts to develop a single computer model, which will be used to examine effects on the environment.
Long-term damage FOAR and Professor Haese have been invited to submit a detailed technical document outlining the theory of longterm damage to the catchment caused by extraction of groundwater. The review of water extraction licences from Upper and Lower Eastern View Aquifers will now directly consider the effect on the Anglesea River Catchment. This will affect Barwon Water, which is extracting water from the Lower Eastern View (LEV) Aquifer as part of a drinking water security plan, and ALCOA, which may continue to extract water from the Upper Eastern View (UEV) Aquifer to help fill the mine pit. continued on page 24
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