A new study on the health of the Bellingen and Kalang Rivers has shown more needs to be done to improve the waterways.
The rivers are major tourist drawcards and also home to a multi-million oyster industry.
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A new study on the health of the Bellingen and Kalang Rivers has shown more needs to be done to improve the waterways.
The rivers are major tourist drawcards and also home to a multi-million oyster industry.
For years I have argued about the town effluent being poured into the Bellingen River. The sewerage was on part of my parent’s property at the time and I have a long standing knowledge of the situation. It was built in the 60’s as I remember and when I moved back to the valley in the eighties is when I notice the change in the river a river that was so clean you could drink the water while swimming. The river was that pristine. In the early 80’s I moved back to the valley and noticed the quality of the water was in a bad state as you could no longer see the bottom of the river bed.
I became interested and did a lot of reading when the children of the town had outbreaks of boils and more than one because they swam in the river. At the time the sewerage was on a hill and all the effluent when it rained heavily overflowed and made the flats below all soggy. Anyone could see what was happening and after a lot of letters to the paper council then decided to do something about an overloaded sewerage.
They formed a committee and never took advice from the consultant they hired, or from the committee. So! A bigger sewerage was built further up the hill and council in their wisdom sloped the banks so there wasn’t a pipe sticking out of the bank for all to see it was put in the bed of the river about 500 metres downstream Lavenders bridge. The river is tidal at that point and the town water is taken about 500 metres or so upstream of the bridge that is to give you an idea as to why so much chlorine is in the water. Council hid the sewerage out of site behind trees across from the golf course. Check the effluent for the excessive nutrients.
This sewerage was not built to the standard it should off been, which would of cost one million dollars it is purified by running under Ultra Violet light as to how that can purify effluent is a mystery as it has now been proved that not even bio solids are safe to use. E’ Coli is dangerous and can cause many diseases including meningitis and should not be discharged into a river system. Council needs to look under its nose to see where the pollution is coming from as they are the cause of it.
It’s not the farmers as there are hardly any to what there were when I was a child growing up on the river. The valley was once full of farmers and plus a milk factory all on the river no pollution back then. Why can we use cow manure in our gardens without being sick and not bio-solids?
I would also like to say the hospital is hooked into the sewerage system and anyone can guess what could go down the drain, blood, medications to name just a few. This is a warning as oysters filter the water. Funny how the council of today can spend ten million dollars upgrading a council works depot but not care about the people who might contract a bad disease. If anyone dies and a class action is taken there will be a lot of repercussions for past and present council, not to mention the Mayors who hire the people who should be trained for these things.