Great Barrier Reef 'swamped by pollutants'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Great Barrier Reef 'swamped by pollutants'*
By Brian Williams
August 11, 2007 10:21am
Article from: The Courier-Mail
CANCER-causing pollutants and insecticides are pouring out to the Great
Barrier Reef from contaminated rivers, a major study has found.
Banned organochlorine pesticides have also been found in mud crabs
living in some of the marine park's key rivers.
The study found eight of the Reef park's 10 major rivers exceed state
water quality guidelines for nutrient and sediment.
The largest water quality study conducted on the Reef found pollutants –
some cancer causing – including PCBs (industrial coolants) and the
insecticides dieldrin and DDT.
Released yesterday by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the
report found pesticides had contaminated all inshore areas.
Crabs collected from the Burnett at Bundaberg, the Pioneer at Mackay,
the Fitzroy at Rockhampton and the Barron River at Cairns contained the
highest frequency and concentrations of organochlorines.
The authority's executive director Andrew Skeat said people could still
safely eat mud crabs because the chemicals had been detected at low
levels and in organs – parts of the animal not normally eaten.
"But that's not to say the issue isn't of concern," Mr Skeat said.
Organochlorine pesticides such as DDT, chlordane, dieldrin, aldrin and
heptachlor were banned in the 1980s because they had such a long life.
The Federal Environment Department said they degraded slowly and being
fat-soluble, accumulated in the food chain, eventually ending up in the
fat of human bodies.
The 10 rivers surveyed from north to south were the Normanby, Barron,
Johnstone, Tully, Herbert, Burdekin, O'Connell, Pioneer, Fitzroy and
Burnett.
Canegrowers chief executive Ian Ballantyne said growers and graziers
were already putting enormous effort into changing practices to lessen
impacts on the Reef.
Sediment run-off and the dispersal of herbicides and insecticides had
been greatly reduced.