The Water Condition of the Brisbane River
The Brisbane River has flowed for over 400 million years. The catchment of the Brisbane River has overcome phases of flood and drought while its origins altered as the surrounding land changed overtime.
In 1823, John Oxley entered the river for the first time. At the time the river appeared clean and unpolluted. Oxley immediately recognised the river’s potential as a site for new settlement, through his recommendation the city of Brisbane was established in 1825. The Brisbane River extends inland for 300km reaching its source at the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. The river’s catchment occupies an area of approximately 30,000km2 and releases it waters into Moreton Bay. The once pristine waters were used as a source of drinking water and recreational purposes. Industries saw the river as a cheap and efficient source for waste discharge. Before road links were established with Sydney the river held the only form of transport including trade. The Brisbane River was and still is the cities most valuable asset for both recreational, relaxational and transportational purposes.
Throughout the past century the Brisbane River has been over used and polluted. The river basin has provided fertile agricultural and grazing lands, and suitable catchment sites for damming purposes. The advantages the river presented were carelessly exploited, to an extent self reparation seemed impossible. Today, the Brisbane River has experience substancial modification to satisfy the requirements of the increasing population.
Through extensive public awarness promotions the river gained political support in the form of anti-polution acts. The responsibility of water quality control in the Brisbane now rests in the hands of the Queensland Parliament which passed two acts designed to protect the river from pollutants. These include: the Pollution of Waters by Oil Act of 1973 and the Clean Waters Act of 1971.
Through increasing public awarness and involvement the water quality the river is steadily improving, however, its pollution levels still exceed safe levels. One must remember that the river supports approximately 2 million people with industry and transport heavily relient on its waters, therefore, certain levels of pollution are understandable.
The ultimate purpose of this report is to analyse the condition of Brisbane River water in 2001. Through testing of river water in different collection locations I statement can be made concerning the overall health of the river. From the results collected recommendations can be made to reduce pollution and erosion levels along the river.
Sedimentary rock from the older Silurian Period is further from the river banks (Geological map of Victoria, 1973). Mudstone, inter-bedded shale and greywacke depositions indicate the Maribyrnong River may have previously taken a different shape, and younger sediments have replaced the older sediments in more recent geological periods.
As can be seen from the map (Figure 5), the Maribyrnong Rivers begins when the two major tributaries- Deep Creek and Jackson’s creek merge together, and then the river go through the Brimbank Park, downstream flows through suburban Melbourne before joining the Yarra River estuary on its way out to Port Phillip Bay. Therefore, because of the hydrology, there is erosion can be found in the Site 2 area.
Tapas Biswas, A. K. a. J. A., 2012. Recent Floods and Salinity of the Murray River. [Online]
In the early 1880s, Chicago was a bustling city on its way to becoming one of great cities in the world. There was a problem though. Horrible sanitation problems plagued the city. The Chicago River was virtually an open sewer covered with visible filth. Most of the river’s worst pollution came from homes and bathroom waste thought the city. “Bubbly Creek” was one of the worst branches of the river. It was filled with enough stockyard waste to equal the pollution from a sizable city. To further the problem, all of the contents of the river flowed into Lake Michigan, polluting Chicago’s drinking water causing a sever outbreak of water born diseases.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) was originally the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The original objective behind this act was to “to prepare comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters.” (U.S Fish and Wild Life Service, 2013). Throughout the duration of this paper the various amendments and their effects will be discussed, those involved both on the side of support and opposition and what influenced the amendments to be made and passed.
The system on a whole has been affected as the surrounding Coorong and Lower Lakes areas are encountering declining environmental conditions including: degradation of swamps, receding riverbanks and irrigation banks, disruption of irrigation usage and the irregularity of ferry services. These environmental issues have an effect on the provision of portable water to Adelaide and regional towns who rely on this water source. This means the government is having to find other sources of water so that it can be provided to Adelaide and the regional towns, putting extra stress on the
About 80% of the State’s surveyed freshwater rivers and streams have good water quality that fully supports aquatic life uses, 17% have fair water quality that partially supports aquatic life uses, and 3% have poor water quality that does not support aquatic life uses. Ten percent of the surveyed rivers do not fully support swimming. The major sources of impairment are agriculture (responsible for 53% of the impaired river miles), urban runoff (responsible for 16%), and construction (responsible for 13%). These sources generate siltation, bacteria, and organic wastes that deplete disssolved opxygen.
Author Patrick McCully of Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams (2001), reports that the first dam was built around 3000 B.C. (p. 11).
Congress enacted legislation now known as the Clean Water Act. During the Truman era, originally called the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The bill Congress passed in 1972 was an overhaul of the original act. The Clean Water Act set limits on the amount of pollutants industries and cities could discharge and gave the Environmental Protection Agency the power to sue and penalize polluters that exceeded those limits. Congress banned DDT, reduced emissions and sued major cities.
The city deserves reliable water supplies, “The project has been in operation for over half a century and the whole fabric of the community here has been built on having those reliable water supplies,”(10 W). This project worked for fifty years, and now the city relies on it. The water supplies provide water to bathe, drink, and swim which most people need to do in order to stay in good health. This helps everyone do their daily activities and work. Why would anyone go against a plan that works and benefits everyone, “...politics that make this project so remarkable,” (2 W). Politicians do not want to spend money on mindless projects; they want their money to go to good organizations. This exhibit that the project a chance at a trustworthy cause. Politicians know the risk, and they have confidence that it will work. There can be a compromise between the farmers and the fish, “The same water that restores the salmon could then be pumped back uphill and used again, this time for irrigation,” (9 W). We also give the salmon they need while also giving back the farmers their water. The river helps the salmon go back to their nest, then lay their eggs, and farmers can water their crops, and sell it to the market. This way everyone can be at peace, and get what they
A single water drop traveling from any river to any ocean is influenced with more than one hundred toxic chemicals and thousands of industrial pollutants. This is what people call water pollution, occurring in any state, country or continent. Unfortunately, throughout the centuries, water pollution has been an ongoing problem, mainly caused by the release of industrial toxins and chemicals. People around the world believe that plastic and metal make up the vast majority of this issue, but as years have come and gone, the quantity of chemicals released by small and large facilities are now the leading cause of water pollution. Although industries need to release waste somewhere, they should avoid putting it in waterways because it impacts the
A Flood Hydrograph and the Factors That Affect its Form A flood hydrograph is a graph of two axis, 'discharge' and 'time'. Plotted on the graph is the amount of discharge over a period of time. By looking at a hydrograph, a lot of information and data can be gathered about the river, the precipitation, the surrounding area and vegetation etc. The gradient, height and length of a line can tell you a lot of this information. There are many different factors that can affect the appearance and shape of a hydrograph.
The pollutants involved in poisoning water resources in Bhutan are chemical waste produce from industries like automobile workshop and factories into river contaminating it with those waste and creating river pollution and risking the life aquatic species and also due change is pattern of human consumption producing more solid waste and dumping in There will growth of water born diseases increasing health hazards and degradation of environment and ecosystems. This affects the natural environment system leading to exaction of some species. And the due contamination of water can also lower the production of agriculture products and other economy activities will decrease. If there will more water bodies pollution it also has negative effects on its environment there decline of economy of the country. Since more of the country budget have invest on the health sectors.
Water Pollution is a current issue that has serious consequences; it progresses everyday in our lakes, oceans, rivers and other bodies of water.
Water pollution is also a major thing in the world because almost 60% of it is fishes. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial waste dumped into the rivers and other water body’s cause am imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and deaths. And the infamous Global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases particularly CO2 is leading to global warming.