Redland City catchments have remained in an overall fair condition this year, according to the Healthy Waterways and Catchments Report Card 2016 released today.
Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said the Healthy Waterways and Catchments Report Card gave Redlands an overall 3 ½ star rating for social and economic benefits, and a C+ for ecological health.
“It was good to see that our freshwater scores remain steady and that our estuarine and bay areas maintained their overall B+ rating with excellent water quality,” Cr Williams said.
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“The report card has some good news, but we don’t shy away from acknowledging there are ongoing issues with freshwater catchment areas, including sediment and pollutants entering these waterways.
“It is our hope that with our involvement in the regional Resilient Rivers initiative and the ongoing care and commitment from everyone in our community, and our neighbouring communities, these results will see improvements over coming years – we must aim for an A+ result.”
Cr Williams said the regional results echoed the findings of Council’s own Redland Waterways Recovery Report 2016, also released in early November.
“Our detailed Redlands Waterways Recovery Report 2016 also showed 14 of our 15 catchments are either steady or improved on last year,” Cr Williams said.
“The only catchment with an overall decline was Native Dog Creek, a shared catchment with Logan City which saw poorer nutrient scores that may be associated with a lack of rainfall and flow.
“This year we had 606mm of rain over the monitoring period, compared to the previous year’s 1278mm.”
Cr Williams said the community played a crucial role in efforts to protect local waterways.
“I hope people read these reports with the takeaway message that waterway health isn’t just an environmental issue, it has social and economic impacts for all of us,” she said.
“Everyone can also be part of the solution – actions as small as using reusable water bottles, or planting native trees that require little or no fertilizer, can make a big difference.”
Deputy Mayor Wendy Boglary said Council was 100 per cent committed to playing its role in improving the quality of waterways.
“Over our local reporting period our parks and conservation teams planted more than 71,000 native plants, including around 20,000 square metres of riparian plantings,” she said.
“The relic weir in Hilliards Creek was retrofitted to a fishway helping to reconnect aquatic habitat for local native fish.
“More than 3.4 hectares of land was restored to prevent sediment and erosion entering waterways, aquatic weeds were controlled across 45 sites and 69 cubic metres of litter was removed from 110 waterway spots across the city.
“The Roads, Drainage and Marine unit maintained $2.5 million of storm water infrastructure, preventing a massive 164 tonnes of pollutants, 85 tonnes of sediment and 28 tonnes of organic material from entering our waterways.
“Our Development Control unit also inspected 1,800 building sites and facilitated regional industry field days.”
