Barron River Water Quality - a Key Issue for our Region

Members of FoE Kuranda have been concerned about water quality in the Barron for several years.

We realize there regular testing is undertaken in the barron to assess sediment load and nutrient content (phosphorous and nitrogen). But what has become apparent, as we've asked more questions of the authorities, is the lack of testing for pesticides. Heavy metals in the river are also a concern.

The Barron River (and Trinity inlet) are currently the subject of a Water Quality Improvement Plan (WQIP). This is a government-funded program intended to improve water quality - focusing on catchments which drain onto the Great Barrier Reef. According to the Queensland Government's webpage on the subject:

Water quality improvement plans (WQIPs) are catchment- and regional-based water quality management plans. They seek to improve water quality by reducing the amount of key pollutants (e.g. nutrients, sediments, and chemicals) from the Reef catchments entering the waterways and carried to the Reef lagoon.

Given these fine sounding words, it is disappointing in the extreme that the current Barron River / Trinity Inlet WQIP is NOT looking at pesticide loads in the Barron River. When FoE Kuranda asked why, the answer was "lack of funds".

Any study of water quality in this significant river that drains into the Coral Sea is welcome. But by deliberately overlooking the key issue of pesticides, this WQIP has lost legitimacy before it starts.

WQIP staff, under questioning, acknowledged that pesticides are a significant issue. It is estimated that over 400 pesticides are used in the Barron catchment - refelcting the diversity of agriculture in the catchment (catchment dominated by only a few crops,. such as sugar cane, tend to have a simpler profile). While DDT was banned in the 1980s, the impacts of today's complex chemical brew of somewhat less persistent chemicals is effectively unknown.

There are two key issues of concern:

1/ Impacts on the Reef and the natural biota

2/ Impacts on Human Health.

Both are essentially unknowns.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has noted in past studies that pesticides are potential stress factor for the reef.

Regarding human health, the town water supply for both Mareeba and Kuranda is drawn from the Barron River. Only sophisticated filtering arrangements such as activated charcoal filters would remove pesticides from the supply. Any trace of pesticides in the water would breach national dribking water quality guidelines. Avoidance of testing therefore appears to be outright evasion of the responsibilities of all levels of governmnbt to assure a safe public water supply in this area. Another factor with the potential to affect human health is pesticides and eavy metals accumulated in the aquatic fauna - some of which is eaten by the local population. In the Myola Valley, for instance, Aboriginal fishers regularly catch and eat Barron River fish. Are the fish safe or not? Who knows?

FoE Kuranda will push for answers on these questions. We'd like more community help to get the politicians and media to take notice. Please write to politicians about this - we suggest Premier Anna Bligh and Mayor Tom Gilmore are appropriate fist ports of call. Please write to the newspapers. Feel free to send us your correspondence - including any answers you recieve - so we can share the information and get some momentum going on this important issue of lcoal water quality.

The Campaign against the Kuranda Range 4-Lane Highway Proposal - a Quick Overview

Along with many other local and national environment groups, FoE Kuranda is strongly opposed to a hugely expensive proposal to carve a 100 metre wide bitumen strip through World Heritage rainforests on the Kuranda Range - a proposal intended to lead to the proliferation of car-dependent suburbs in the Kuranda area.

In May 2007, the former Coalition (Howard) Government gave conditional approval for construction, but since then there has been a Federal election and a change of government in Canberra. Australia's new Federal Government, led by Kevin Rudd, has yet to declare a position on the Highway proposal.

More significantly, the Queensland State Government is also under new leadership. Premier Anna Bligh replaced the former Premier Peter Beattie in September 2007.

Under the previous Premier, the Queensland Government was the key proponent of the Kuranda Range 4 Lane Highway proposal. But during the course of 2008, there have been welcome signs of a change of heart.on the part of the State Government.

The Bligh Government Minister for Main Roads, Warren Pitt, stated earlier this year that the cost emtitime for the Highway proposal had blown out to over a billion dollars. He expressed the view that it was hard to justify at that price.

Meanwhile, plans to urbanie the Myola Valley - a rural area close to Kuranda - suffered a setback. Althought the outgoing Mareeba Shire Council approved the Plan, the State Governbment has moved away from this ecologically disastrous proposal. The case to build the Highway is correspondingly weakened - as each proposal (the proposed Highway and urbanization of Myola) was designed to justify the other.

FNQ 2025

FNQ 2025 is a new regional statutory plan. It was announced by the Queensland Government during the 2006 election campaign. FNQ 2025 is currently in draft form.

The Draft of FNQ 2025 was released in May 2008. The deadline for public submissions was early August.

The Draft Report represents a significant step towards the evolution of more prgressive poilicies for the Kuranda area. FNQ 2025 does not completely reject the Kuranda Range Highway proposal - but it does put in on the back burner. Significantly, FNQ 2025 does not support urbaniation of the Myola area.

These are very significant policy advances. The planners - and the State Government - may now come under strong pressure from vested interests to reverse these positions in the Final version of FNQ 2025 - which will be the basis for legislation in State Parliamment.

Please Help FoE Kuranda!

You can assist our campaigns by joining FoE Kuranda or making a donation

NO 4-Lane Highway on the Kuranda Range! + NO urbanization of the Kuranda area! +

YES to a prosperous & sustainable future!