FISH KILL-Polution hits the Pimpama

[bennykenny]

Decided to do a land based fish with my 7 month old daughter in tow,headed down to the weir on the pimpama river ready for a flick and as i pulled up in the car i noticed a few mullet floating on the surface, i thought some one must have been using them for bait and just throw the left overs in, but on closer inspection the water looked quite dirty aswell.
i got out and to my shock there would have been 20 or 30 dead fish floating around and even more fish that were close to death. all the water is a creamy colour and the place stinks of dead fish.
Speaking to a guy who was still fishing there(???) he was saying that it happened before about 2 months ago and there were hundreds of dead fish and crabs there and said it was all over the news, and that it was from one of the cane farmers dumping a load of chlorine into the river???
what the hell are these guys thinking??? and why are they getting away with this idiotic behavior. shame shame shame.BennyKenny

[Matthias]

Mate you should call the EPA next time- and maybe take a water sample too. Sounds like there's something dodgy going on there.

Cane farms are renouned for creating WQ disasters but never heard of chlorine dumping before- sounds fishy to me...

Cheers
Pete

[bennykenny]

hey pete have contacted EPA and waiting for a call back from them. i was only there 2 weeks ago and the water was clear as a bell, makes me sick. BK

[bennykenny]

just got a call back from DERM telling me because there wasnt more than 50 fish that i saw that they would hand it over to GCC council to investigate, proberly this is why nothing gets done about it, just gets passed around until everyone forgets about it.

[Awshucks]

just got a call back from DERM telling me because there wasnt more than 50 fish that i saw that they would hand it over to GCC council to investigate, proberly this is why nothing gets done about it, just gets passed around until everyone forgets about it.

The Gccc will pass the buck too but Keep hounding, gov department's always pass the buck but one will eventually have to take responsibility.
The cane industry has a very powerful lobby that has enabled a blind eye from the government of the day,to the poisioning of river's that they cause for decades.

[bondy99]

just got a call back from DERM telling me because there wasnt more than 50 fish that i saw that they would hand it over to GCC council to investigate, proberly this is why nothing gets done about it, just gets passed around until everyone forgets about it.

bennykenny, yeah mate I know that spot very intimately.

The road bridge separates the saltwater side from the fresh even though the otherside is at times brackish to a certain extent up the creek.

Mate, that's the fouth time in 5 years. the latest one was about 3 months ago or so before we had the big deluge.

The time before that the entire river on the seaward side was littered with dead fish, mullet, bream. catfish and a few others, even the mudcrabs were dead, literally mate, my feet was also burning when I went down to canal to have a closer look....Acid Sulfate Soil disturbance...bloody developments...builders were told not to dig the area as the entire region is also acid sulfate soil.

Now we have the local sewer treatment plant installed an operating with the blessing of GGCC.

DERMA is passing the buck, I think next step is local media such as Albert and Logan News or whatever paper is circulated in that area.

Print the pics and note time , day and date when you encountered this.

I would be doing it myself if I was there at the time, just my thoughts and directions on it

DERMA or the former EPA had a minimum requirement of fish death to investigate it.

In all probability there would have been hundreds (the fish further down the river that would not been seen from where you were at the time).

Cheers
Peter

[Jonno Lucas]

G'day mate,

Call back tomorrow and tell them there's more than 50 fish. It's ridiculous - I have to jump through so many DERM hoops to keep captive native animals that have nothing to do with conservation, but as soon as there's a true conservation based issue, they pass the buck.

[bennykenny]

i know, if i had walked up and down the banks and counted more than 50 fish then derm would get involved, what a joke, might shoot an email off to albert/logan news and gold coast bully

[bondy99]

Thats damn typical of Government bodies, one thing they dont like is bad publicity.

I wonder if there is a conflict of interest or corruption within DERM as to reason they turn a blind eye to cane farmer dumping chemical in the river (Hey, it might be one of their mate's).

When it comes to the envirionment we all have to do our share in looking after it and I know I'm not one for corrupt practices.

Peter

[Matthias]

Or maybe DERMA has had their budget hammered due to the GFC and dont have enough resources to investigate everything that gets thrown at them. I know that the case for us and it gets a little old when all people do is scream abuse. Most people do the best they can in these situations and sometimes they have to prioritise.

On the other hand that 50 fish thing is BS- if you speak to them again ask them what policy are they refering to that says there needs to be 50 dead fish to trigger an investigation. Or maybe chase up with the local gov. If that dont work write to the minister with a few pics attached- that will def work.

Cheers
Pete

[FNQCairns]

Fish seem to be in amazingly good condition (apart from the death including a lack of sores etc

The mullet has had something feeding on it unless it's a bird/rock crab when stranded from tide.

Smacks of a cause the fish are not well designed to turn around and flee from, like o2 depletion...they can wind down and become disorientated then die.

Smaller tides lately?, warmer nights?, lack of wind?

It's a shame but doesn't seem like DERM need to care being in a backed up portion of a waterway and all.

I dislike the duplicity of minor kills with no payback society style, if grandpa with a grandkid took just one of those fish a cm undersized from a jetty he would be branded a fisherys ruiner.

[bondy99]

Or maybe DERMA has had their budget hammered due to the GFC and dont have enough resources to investigate everything that gets thrown at them. I know that the case for us and it gets a little old when all people do is scream abuse. Most people do the best they can in these situations and sometimes they have to prioritise.

On the other hand that 50 fish thing is BS- if you speak to them again ask them what policy are they refering to that says there needs to be 50 dead fish to trigger an investigation. Or maybe chase up with the local gov. If that dont work write to the minister with a few pics attached- that will def work.

Cheers
Pete

Yeah, there is no policy or minimum number required. Maybe if more than one person complained then they might Act. Thhey are just being slack...They have no budget cuts. What they do have is too many chiefs and not enough indians..and before some idiot says hey that's racist. its actually a figure of speech.

[bennykenny]

i spoke to a young lady called jane from the gold coast council this morning and she told me she was down at the site on the pimpama and she could only see a couple of fish dead there i explained to here that is was high tide and the fish had proberly floated back up the river, i queried here about the previous fish kill in the same spot 3 months ago and she said she had heard about it but wasnt involved, she got me to email the photos to her and said she would investigate the previous fish kill.
when she called me back this afternoon she told me that there was a quite extensive kill there 3 months ago and a couple of the council field officers helped DERM clean up the mess, they even took a water sample. well done i thought, then she told me, "But they didnt get it tested",what the????
i asked why they hadnt had it tested and she just quickly changed the subject and told me if i see anymore fish kills to report it to them straight away and hung up.
so what this says to me is that you can dump anything you like into the rivers and creeks and kill as many animals you like without retribution from any authority, as long as your are a farm or a company or a developer. but if your a member of the public watchout!!!

[bondy99]

bennykenny,

Mate, I still think you should go public with this GGCC is still buggers and like pollies mate, avoid the question. GGCC is a Local Government Authority so the water tests they have undertaken should be released to the public and not hush hush, If it's hush hush, then its damn well corrupt. so much for healthy waterway reports hey!!


You should try to get their reponse in writing, Reason for this you ask !!

If they reply in writing then they are committed and if no joy then next step would be either State Ombudsman

Or, Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House (QPILCH) but that's only if it benefits the community as a whole. its a free service

I dealt with EPA in the past so the more info you have

Cheers, Peter

[Awshucks]

If you ever get the chance to have a look in a cane drain when there has not been a decent drop of rain in a while you would swear in was flowing from a nuclear reactor!(something fello nigger fisherman can attest to) then when it rains well we all know where it goes.