Pollution Levels in the Brisbane River - Assignment Example

1 Report: Pollution Levels In The Brisbane River 2 Executive Summary This paper gives a general report on the degrees of pollution which can be found in the Brisbane river. This report includes the nature, causes and historical facts surrounding the river pollution. Statistical facts and figures of the frequency of the occurrence of pollution are also presented in the report. The past and present sample situations of pollutions which the river experienced and is still experiencing are analysed in details in this essay in order to possibly awaken appropriate authorities on the most viable solution for this environmental problem. Outside factors influencing the river’s pollution are also gathered in this paper in order to provide well-informed and balanced details surrounding the pollution. This essay is written with the intention of awakening Brisbane’s population that the river’s pollution is causing excessive health and social burdens to the city. It is greatly hoped for that the Brisbane residents are able to be awakened that this problem is not to be ignored as the longer it is ignored, the worst would be the ramifications this problem imposes. The writer of this essay also hopes this piece of work allows him to call out the attention of the authorities working with the environmental departments of Australia that it is about time they put in more efforts in trying to resolve the issue. The writer wants to allow these authorities to also realize their refusal to exert these efforts would ultimately reflect negatively on their professional reputations and images. This essay also serves to be an inspirational encouraging message as well as an academic piece of work. It enhances the academic writing skills of the student, and at the same time, encourages concerned parties to be motivated to resolve the issue. Introduction New South Wales surveyor general, John Oxley, Stirling, and one of the convicts who traveled from Sydney to Illawara by sea, John Finnegan, sailed the Brisbane river on December 2, 1823 and traveled north to present day Goodna (Wikipedia, 2010). Oxley was especially 3 attracted to the numerous healthy fish in the river and huge pine trees surrounding the riversides (Wikipedia, 2010). European discoverers, which include Allan Cunningham and also Oxley, noticed the rainforests surrounding the river and its leading tributaries, especially on larger floodplains like St. Lucia and Seventeen Mile Rocks (Wikipedia, 2010). The lower coastal lands were heavily planted with Melaleuca woodlands in wet coastal areas (Wikipedia, 2010). The Europeans describe the lower parts of the Brisbane river as surrounded by open forest features, covered forest and rainforest (Wikipedia, 2010). Also in 1823, the river was named in honor of Sir Thomas Brisbane, a former governor of New South Wales (Wikipedia, 2010). Because of the advanced improvements the river obtained as contributed to the European discovery voyages conducted in the entire parts of the river, the Brisbane river has been serving multiple purposes both in the industrial and developmental sectors (Brown & Richardson, 1998). Among of these advanced improvements the European travelers have imprinted are the following (Brown & Richardson, 1998): -The lower parts of the river are urbanized in appearance, from these parts, the river travels on to the third largest city in Australia (Brown & Richardson, 1998). -The lower parts of the river are great places to conduct these activities: transport activities, waste water disposal, a port, motorized recreation activities and active and passive other activity types (Brown & Richardson, 1998). -The northern parts of the river run through the city of Brisbane (Brown & Richardson, 1998). These parts which run through the city territories serve as venues for local city events, both for cultural and friendly residential purposes (Brown & Richardson, 1998). These functions generate numerous noises around the vicinities surrounding the river (Brown & Richardson, 1998). Strategies for lessening or eliminating noises are the following (Brown & Richardson, 1998): -River noise zoning (Brown & Richardson, 1998) 4 -Implementation of operation of waterway facilities (Brown & Richardson, 1998). -Implementation of residential and other noise sensitive equipments (Brown & Richardson, 1998). -Good quiet practices of rowing and related activities (Brown & Richardson, 1998). -Implementing contemporary ways of controlling water body noises (Brown & Richardson, 1998). During the entire century that has passed, the Brisbane river has been excessively used and thus, polluted (Essays.cc, 2004). The pollution levels are placed under control recently (Essays.cc, 2004). However, despite this effort, the pollution which can be found in the river still reaches beyond the safe pollution free levels (Essays.cc, 2004). Certain amounts of pollution are understandable in the river as it supports the general transportation and commercial needs of the city’s two million people (Essays.cc, 2004). BP at Bulwer Island and Caltex at Lytton produce streams which came from polluted areas in the city to the river (Essays.cc, 2004). Toxic pollutants or pesticides are produced in the river by urban, industrial and northern land run-off substances (Essays.cc, 2004). Accident debris, although do not occur regularly, is also a common contributor to the pollutants in the river (Essays.cc, 2004). Debris washes into the river when car accidents, injuries and other mishaps occur within the sides of the river. Chemical elements from insecticides, petroleum and other substances are encountered at times in Brisbane, as a result, these elements pollute and contaminate the river and kills thousands of fish in it (Essays.cc, 2004). Heavy rains penetrating the upper parts of the Brisbane river, concentrating especially on the Stanley river catchment, possibly causes considerable flooding in lower most parts of the river (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). Considerable flooding is also among the leading causes of pollution in the river. Rain water in floods is mixed with numerous underground sediments such as toxic soil fertilizer chemicals, snake venoms, and other toxic elements brought about by underground animals and insects. 5 These polluted elements penetrate flood waters in huge batches as when flooding occurs it penetrates the areas in large amounts. On the other hand, Somerset and Wivenhoe Dam’s have increasingly helped to lessen the occurrence of flooding in the lower parts of the Brisbane river going through the city of Brisbane, which yields severe flooding in its run-off nearby area (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The flood occurrences in the Brisbane river upper parts or what the public collectively call “Woodford,” also yield high frequency rates during the 1890s (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). As a result, these parts also nurture high degree of water body pollutions (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). One of the severe floodings in the river also occurred in the upper parts of the Stanley River by Peachester due to frequent rainfall these parts received in 1893 (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). This flooding also further made the secretary of the environmental department of Australia to rethink whether or not their government is exerting as much effort as it should in decreasing the pollutants in the river. As part of the efforts of the Australian government to contain the pollutants in the river, the Bureau of Meteorology, together with the cooperation of the South East Queensland Water Corporation (SEQWater) and the Brisbane City Council (BCC) implement a flood containment system (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). This system refers to a flood alert program that is set up in the upper catchment of the Brisbane river, located just on the head of the Wivenhoe dam by referencing on the details contained in the rainfall and the map’s river height network (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). This network consists of the following components which greatly contribute in decreasing water pollutants: manual tracked rain occurrences, employment of river height specialists and automatic telemetry advanced tools (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). This system greatly helps in immediately making it known to flood specialists about the initial occurrence of floods, in which by doing so specialists are instantly dispatched to the river site to contain the floods, thereby, greatly preventing any severe pollutants from underground elements penetrating flood waters to pollute the river as well. In turn, this network contributes in containing pollutants through the following ways: 6 -The filtering of most of the polluting elements which can also found in rainwater as rain falls in the areas near the river. -Reporting of employed river specialists to their departmental superiors which pollutants severely contribute to the pollution of the river as referenced from the river’s size. -Having the possession of advanced telemetry tools to be able to tell ahead of time the pollutant types contained in the flood waters which flow out into the river. By having this ability to do so, these tools are able to greatly aid flood containment specialists to figure out advanced flood containment techniques ahead of time, if there would arise any needs to utilize these techniques. The flood alert program has just received an upgraded features status from SEQWater, in cooperation with the efforts disseminated by the Bureau Of Meteorology and the BCC by implementing the operations of numerous flood alert program stations (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These stations give disseminate alert notifications of severe raining occurrences and river water rising within the entire catchment areas (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). By doing so, the stations are able to contribute in the prevention of flooding in the Brisbane Valley, and in turn, the Brisbane river (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The implementation of these upgraded features possessed by the flood alert program is just one of the many efforts exerted by the Australian environmental department in lessening the Brisbane river’s pollutants. The other efforts exerted by the Australian environmental department in lessening the Brisbane river’s pollutants (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010): -Through putting forth trust into the SEQWater, the Australian meteorology bureau issues flood warning notifications to the upper Brisbane river catchment areas just on the head of Wivenhoe Dam (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). -Because of the SEQWater's role to manage the flood occurrences in the dams, It disseminates details to the bureau to inform it of the real and approximated pollutants overflow in the Brisbane river coming from Somerset and Wivenhoe Dams that are utilised as bases in the flood forecasting activities (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). 7 The other Australian environmental agencies which provide details on flood notifications surrounding the river are the Toowoomba Regional Council and the Somerset Regional Council (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These two agencies disseminate daily updates of river height bulletin messages and flood warning notifications to specialists when flooding occurs in the upper parts of the Brisbane river catchment areas just on the head of the Wivenhoe dam (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The effort made by the Brisbane ALERT System in containing floods, and thus, water pollutants in the Brisbane river area follows (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010): -Stationing of computer tracking systems in the offices of SEQWater, the Brisbane City Council and the Brisbane’s Bureau of Meteorology in order receive alerts from VHF radio (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These computer systems report every rainfall encountered and modifications in the river size (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The computer tracking systems in the SEQWater and Brisbane City Council offices gather all of the necessary details and uses software that exhibits these details in diagram forms to supervise and interpret data to be studied (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These details are also received by the Bureau of Meteorology’s Flood Warning Centre as it they are used as references when using the hydrologic models to make predictions on the possible size the Brisbane river may become in the future (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). Flood warning alerts and river height bulletin messages regularly dispatched for the upper parts of the Brisbane river catchment areas on the Wivenhoe Dam when these parts get flooded (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These alerts and messages are publicly announced in radio stations, informed to the Councils, emergency rescue services, and numerous various agencies that work together in regulating flood containment activities (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). 8 Another way of effectively interpreting the overall pollution levels in the Brisbane river is through the successful interpretation of the flood warning notifications and river height bulletin messages (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). These notifications and messages handle details surrounding the average river sizes in order to be able to decide on the most optimal locations to observe the growth of river sizes (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The sizes of the rivers tell us the areas the rivers flow through, thus, indicating the types and levels of pollution that rivers receive. In the case of the Brisbane river, its areas around the Somerset above the Wivenhoe dams are more prone to receive more numerous quantity and various types of pollutants as these areas are the most frequent lodging of floods in the river. The river reading time and the tendency of changes in the Brisbane river (e.g., rising, falling, being steady, etc.) are recorded every time a reading is conducted for the river (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The rising periods of the river are the most sensitive periods for the river to acquire pollutants from flooding and outdoor activities as when pollutants enter the river at this time, they are immediately internally mixed within the whole body of the river (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The flood warning notifications may also give alerts and prepare people on minimal, average and severe flooding which may take place in the future (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). The Brisbane River’s “River Height Bulletins” also informs the river height specialists of the height of the bridge on the road or causeway located in every sides of the river (Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology, 2010). Doing so would be able to give river height specialists the degrees of pollution levels these sides of the river possess. The pollution levels of the Brisbane river most usually are of the same levels as the humongous size of the river. One of the major contributing reasons the pollutants of the river are numerous is because of the large areas the river flows though in the entire city. Cities located in urban areas, like Brisbane, are naturally more polluted as compared to cities or towns in semi-rural and rural areas. Pollution in urban areas is very common as more people live in these areas as compared to semi-rural and rural areas. More people entail dealing with people of various 9 backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures. These differences make the people to act and believe diversely on ethical ways of disposing their wastes, toxins and garbage. On this note, pollutions in these areas continuously remain. The height of the Brisbane river also tells people of the areas in Brisbane which surround the river itself. Summary And Conclusions The Australian environmental department has come a long way in putting forth efforts to contain pollutants in the river. The department can further improve these efforts through obtaining continued consultations from various professional sources as often as the opportunities arise. The people in the city of Brisbane may also aid in preserving a pollution free Brisbane river through conducting volunteer works to clean up the river and conducting campaigns throughout the city promoting a clean Brisbane river. The people in Brisbane need to see the tremendous ramifications the pollution issue imposes on their society and welfare. They need to not turn blind eyes on the situation as when they do, they do not get to resolve the issue until more and more entities suffer the serious consequences. They need to be more outspoken in order to be of more aid in being able to resolve the pollution issues surrounding the river. Being more outspoken also entails more effort in resolving the problems through actions, not only words. 10 References: Wikipedia. (2010). Brisbane River. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_River Bown, A.L. & Richardson, C.M. (1992). A ComprehensiveNoise Management Strategy for an Urbanized River Catchment. Journal Of Environmental Planning And Management, 41 (3). Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a713676465 Essays.cc. (2004). Brisbane River. Retrieved from Essays.cc Free Essays, Cliff Notes, And Term Paper Database. Australian Government Bureau Of Meteorology. (2010). Flood Warning System For The Upper Brisbane River Above Wivenhoe Dam. Retrieved from http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/brochures/brisbane_upper/brisbane_upper_above_wivenhoe_dam.shtml Read More