Chronicle 6/10/08

Mary River myths busted

Myths about the Mary River were passionately 'busted' yesterday by environmental experts at the Hervey Bay Boat Club.

The River, the Bay and the Strait forum was aimed at getting more discussion and debate flowing throughout the Fraser Coast community about the proposed Traveston Crossing dam.

One guest speaker, scientist Steve Burgess, dismissed several myths which suggested the Mary River had plenty of flow and would not be significantly impacted by the proposed $2 billion dam.

"The government completely misses the point when it comes to what the dam would mean for the river downstream," he said.

"The Mary already suffers from low flows and runs into severe ecological problems.

"In dry times most of the land area downstream of the dam site actually takes more water from the river that what it puts back in. Damming the south east corner of the catchment would be catastrophic."

The 80-strong gathering also heard talks on the effects of climate change on river systems, new research on increasing hypersalinity levels in Hervey Bay, as well as the impact the dam could have on the migratory birds, seagrass, dugongs and vulnerable fish and turtle species which depended on the Great Sandy Strait and Mary River to thrive.

Guest speakers urged Fraser Coast residents to take their concerns about the proposed dam to local governments.

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Salinity levels already unacceptable in Bay

The waters of Hervey Bay are already experiencing high salinity levels because of low Mary River runoff, low rainfall and high evaporation, an oceanographer has found.

If the proposed Traveston Dam foes ahead the salinity levels could become even worse.

"High salinity and variable freshwater flows have considerable implications for the marine environment, aquaculture and fisheries production," said Joachim Ribbe, an associate professor from the University of Southern Queensland.

"Obviously, during years of drought less freshwater is entering Hervey Bay and hyper salinity is more severe. This then impacts on marine environmental conditions."

Mr Ribbe said that during his two year investigative study he fould high salinity at Hervey Bay before a storm in June this year.

"After the storm the Mary River run-off was 300,000 mega litres. The rainfall and river runoff combined eroded the near shore high salinity."