Weir at mouth of Onkaparinga River?!

[archerfish 685]

This is a link to a copy of an article which is in the latest "Southern Times Messenger" (Wednesday, November 11):

 

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/local-want-useless-onkaparinga-river-returned-to-its-former-glory/story-fnii5yv6-1227603547614

 

Comments, please!!!

 

Cheers

af

[AquaticResearch1 1,046]

They must be kidding. And if the government allows that to happen I will give up completely in the government. If people are that determined to "improve" the system for there own agenda while completely retarding the environment it astounds me.

 

We as fishers generally benefit when an environment is at its peak, functioning, generally, as nature intended; and as such we don't ask for procedures which would jeopardise the environment.

 

Surely the most sensible solution would be to give SA Water a kick in the ass and get them to release some heavy environmental flows from Clarendon.

 

To sand bag Adelaide's largest open mouthed estuary system would be utterly deplorable, especially since it is in direct contact with a sanctuary zone.

 

Grrrrrrrrr

[archerfish 685]

Just having a quick look online and found these:

 

http://dbforms.ga.gov.au/pls/www/npm.ozcoast2.showmm?pBlobno=9430

 

http://www.ozcoasts.gov.au/search_data/detail_result.jsp

 

Cheers

af

[Underpants 1,543]

I do struggle to understand what any proposal might constitute. Are we talking about a 'low' weir to catch the high tidal flows and retain the water volume,creating an artificial lake ? Hence preventing lower tidal movements from influencing the estuary? Really dont have enough information to provide an sort of objective opinion.

 

I would very much lean towards the 'precautionary principle' and suggest that such 'engineering' solution (weir) to the perceived 'problem' (lack of large recreational water body) could create more problems than good. Look how   the Murray Mouth is due to siltation.....low flows....over allocation of water resources  and a s**t load of weirs!!!!

 

An hypothetical Onk weir will exacerbate any effect of low outflows and silting buy providing a low-flow zone for silt to deposit and further preventing the winter storm surges from combining with seasonal winter flows, which naturally open up the system and remove sediment. Sure it will provide a nice lake in the short term but it will quickly fill up with silt and be useless. The problem lies upstream (Mt Bold & private dams) and the ongoing effects of our recent drought.

 

Further, from the perspective of an enviromentalist/recreational fisho (?!) any weir will very much interfere with any natural movement of fish and clearly be detrimental.

 

These folks are disillusionaly single minded. The bigger worry is what political influence do they have?

 

Hang on....the "Southern Times Messenger"..."News Corp". I've just over analysed this. Think we need to take their version of 'journalism' with a liberal dashing of salt.

[plankton 725]

Those people are absolute morons. The river is "useless" and needs to be made "healthier", what a bunch of BS to support their own selfish agenda. Go race your stupid boats somewhere else! If you think the river is useless, take a look on any given day and see how many people are fishing, kayaking, swimming, SUPing and just enjoying the river as it is.

 

Anytime we interfere with the natural flow of rivers and estuary systems we are putting the natural way of things out of balance. I personally don't like what they've done to the Murray, but I can see the need for steady supplies of freshwater, so there is some valid reasoning behind it, although I think the health of the river would be much better served by removing those barrages.

 

I can't believe anyone in power would be shortsighted enough to listen to these idiots (Clean up the Onkaparinga River Campaign ) but I've been unpleasantly surprised by the government before.

[ludaqryz 290]

buy a fkn rowing machine cnts

[kon 300]

"A clue, Watson?"

- Pres of FOGSV and three Onka City Council members in the photo

- One of whom is also a Southport SLSC member

- And another SLSC rep in the article bemoaning being unable to use the river for comps

 

THE Onkaparinga River must be returned to its former glory as a destination for watersports, a group of concerned locals says.

 

Onkaparinga councillor Bill Jamieson would ask his council for a study on the best way to improve the river’s health.

“It has got to happen,” said Cr Jamieson, also a Southport Surf Life Saving Club member.

“At the moment the river is silting up and is just useless.”

 

Pretty obvious what is going on - although why the "enviro warriors" FOGSV are also jumping on this bandwagon has me mystified.

 

Friends of Gulf St Vincent president Rob Bosley said the Onkaparinga River defined the area.

“Outside the Murray River it is the other main iconic river we have got in South Australia,” Mr Bosley said. “To me it appears we have forgotten it; it’s has had its heyday and I would like to see it become healthier.”

 

Here`s hoping DEWNR (wash my mouth out with soap!) may very well have something to say about this?

And af - that Estuary Assessment link you gave should be quite a stumbling block for a start. One would hope...

 

[RecFish SA 72]

Hello,

 

As the comments here sum up very well, this appears to be a narrowly focused initiative, with scant regard for the likely ecological and fishery productivity impacts.

 

I spoke with Cr Bill Jamieson yesterday to try to better understand where the proponents are coming from and to make sure that the media had not muddied the waters. Unfortunately it does seem rather accurate that they want to do this just for recreation and it seems they have entirely dismissed any hope of restoring any freshwater flows to the Onkaparinga estuary.

 

I informed the Councillor that despite the low freshwater flows, the river ecology is very important/significant and has been appearing to improve in recent years. Also that the best ecologists in Australia advocate for restoring tidal flows (not limiting them) as a means to improve river health and that in fact, there is a direct link between estuary productivity and tidal flow/exchange. I also let him know that fishers have secured a grant of $20,000 to improve river habitat and that he should think it reasonable that the sizable angling community will be against this proposal as it appears.

 

The Councillor has sent RecFish SA his report and we will be responding appropriately.

 

Great to see so many on here and elsewhere on social media who have a really great understanding of the importance of natural river processes and who are ready to stand up to protect this wonderful and unique South Australian Estuary.

 

Kind Regards,

David Ciaravolo

 

Executive Director

RecFish SA

[Yakmando 49]

Call me a sceptic, but I would take what our 'local council members' have said with a grain of salt. I would be glad that the 'tests' have not yet been done, and as soon as they are, everybody's favourite bunch of spuds will jump a board and help us- the greens (well, if you call it help?). If a flipping lizard stopped billionaire miners mining in Northern Queensland there would be hundreds of things to stop this development... and not just the fact that it'd go stagnant and carp infested. I mean, it won't be any good for boats. Not unless they double its width and flood all the mini 'plains' all up the river. The locals would also soon complain about the noise and get them banned anyway.... and if it's not boats in the proposal and it's purely for the SLSC and any other swimmer who wants some hideous disease from the foul water, well, there is no chance that governing bodies would destroy the ecology of the river for them. And sand bagging- c'mon. One group effort from a determine group of fishers and their idea is washed away quite literally.
In summary, it will never happen Too many issues with the idea.