ISSUE: Launceston should learn to understand the mud, but it will never be love, writes Brian Wightman.
Tamar River/kanamaluka is not actually a river. Rather it is a tidal estuary covering 68 kilometres and entering Bass Strait at Low Head.
On one day there are protests and "fix the mud" signs decrying the accumulation, coupled with a teenager being rescued from the Head of the River after becoming stuck, while the next there is frivolity at the Cataract Gorge as swimmers take to the Basin, a dolphin (albeit sick) is swimming in the North Esk River, and there is a picturesque full tide on sunset. [ OMG what is this stuff?] ......................
RELATED: A Tasmanian city stuck in the mud, but what can be done?
Learn to "love the mud" is an answer if the estuary was not the economic lifeblood of the city.
For amenity and to support development, businesses, and recreation providers who we have encouraged to invest, the state and federal governments must reinstate a dredging program as a community service [ BLOODY HELL who will pay for this and what with ONLY 'the community' now via rates and taxes GET REAL].......................
Frankly, learn to love the mud is akin to saying learn to love the cold should the City of Launceston council decide to stop heating the regional aquatic centre because it is too expensive [What rubbish and apparently this man has a university education].......................
The banks of the Tamar Yacht Basin at Home Point, the meeting of the North and South Esk, is the most contentious confluence of the river where activities such as hospitality, sport and recreation, tourism, industry, and boat mooring are established.[ Because a poor decision was made by the colonials and people have built on it, stupidly, why do people now have to pay for all those mistakes]......................
The Tamar River/kanamaluka is also a conservation area managed by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, therefore requiring a permit to undertake any mitigation works. This requirement is completely appropriate [ OMG we are now on the other side of the argument].......................
To explain the challenges that we continue to face in simple terms: the estuary, like a blocked toilet, cannot fully flush. [ Bad metaphor but there we go ]......................
RELATED: How the Tamar became polluted and what is being done to fix it......................
By comparison, the Derwent River/timtumili minanya stretching from Lake St Clair to Storm Bay is 239 kilometres long and deep.[ SO??? what;'s the point??]......................
It incorporates a five-and-a-half wide kilometre estuary, home to our state's capital city, Hobart, before emptying into the Tasman Sea.
Hobart is just 19 kilometres from the river mouth and on an outgoing tide flushes the Derwent River.
As a result, it is often a gentle reminder in jest that in 1798 during colonisation Bass and Flinders should have established the base at George Town when they moored. [ OMG who/what informs this stuff??] ..........RELATED: Chamber calls for independent body to oversee river cleanup......................
Our river is further complicated by the fact that the silt as it is commonly known is acid sulphate soil. In situ, or when not exposed to air, the silt presents no risks.
However, when exposed to oxygen, the iron sulfides react and create sulphuric acid, which can kill marine life up and down the estuary.
Confused? [ YES, how do the 'sulphides get there .... Is it our sewerage?? ] ......................
RELATED: Why the Tamar Action Group want more done to fix the river ......................
Basically, when the tide goes out the silt sticks to the salt (flocculation) and travels down the river, but most of it never reaches Low Head nor out to sea. Rather, it simply returns on the incoming tide. [ AND has done for thousands upon thousand of years!!]......................
Further, obstructions in the tributaries and down the river including log jams, willows, jetties, groins, dikes, marinas, and rice grass, with many designed or planted to assist with the silt over the years exacerbates the problem. [ However, all that has created an ecology that has value ]......................
And further still, the Trevallyn Dam and power station, agriculture and forestry, and an utterly inadequate combined storm water and sewerage system supporting a modern and rapidly developing city delivers one of the most talked about and theorised estuary systems in the world. [ YES the legacy of 200 years of disregarding the waterway and imagining it as an OPEN SEWER]........ RELATED: What scientists say about the health of the Tamar River ........ Conclusion: silt is difficult to manage and when exposed to oxygen without treatment, it is bad news. And unless you have an endless supply of lime to treat the soil, it is problematic to make use of the extracted resource as landfill. [ SO it is what it is and a paradigm shift is required and this nonsense goes no way towards helping a misinformed community understand that] ......................
So, day upon day, year upon year, there are yarns and calls for funding and scientific research regarding our city's major waterway.
Complaints and solutions in equal measure reach fever pitch around election time, particularly for candidates in the federal and state seats of Bass where the river has been a talking point for generations.[ YES as us colonials have sown we are reaping our reward ... It was muddy ground not stony ground however]......................
RELATED: Swimming in the Tamar near Launceston may never be safe ......................
Plant more rice grass, dredge it, rake it, let more water flow, build a lake, or dam and flood it has all been mooted or tried. [ BUT never an ecologically sound rational approach ... Just a call for someone else to pay for what's not really worked before]......................
Fortunately, the Tamar Island Wetlands Reserve has been spared from development. Wetlands are the "kidneys of the sea" - they clean the river of its contaminants. [ SO? let's try facilitating that?] However, it is now easier to see tiger snakes than the settling ponds at the Tailrace with the native grasses and bullrushes reaching gigantic proportions. ..... RELATED: 'Unique and really important': The significance of the Tamar's ecosystem ......................
The ponds are used to house the silt when dredging is considered the most appropriate solution [ SO? the point??].......................
But dredging is mighty expensive and state and local governments claim they do not always have the money to spare, so we make the best of what we have - on high tide we show it off while at low tide we head anywhere but the river. [ SO? Who pays for what outcome since there is no longer the need to send stuff to MOTHER ENGLAND]......................
The best solution, as always, is natural - in an unnatural environment. [ OMG where does this come from?]......................
RELATED: Why this 144-year-old club is worried about their future ......................
When the tributaries flood and the water cascades over Trevallyn Dam, a scourer is set free going to work scrubbing the bottom of the basin and delivering the volume of water required to flush Tamar River/kanamaluka the complaints subside like the flood waters. [ YES, attention spans of bureaucrats and time serving rent seeking 'pollies' are equal to those of nats] ......................
Alas a 2016 flood occurs once every 50 years and was mighty concerning for Invermay and surrounding floodplains and suburbs. [ YES, and the next one will breach the levy banks and then what?]......................
We should learn to understand the mud, but it will never be love [ SO??? what's not to love about a wetland with lots of wildlife?].......................
• Brian Wightman is a former Tasmanian Attorney-General and school principal.
[Tandra Vale]
