Cooks River - Environmental Issues

Environmental Issues

The Cooks River has a catchment area of 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi), within the metropolitan areas of Sydney enclosed by urban environments and extensive recreational areas. The human population of this area is over 400,000 people. There are over 100,000 commercial and industrial premises. The river has typical water catchment management problems characteristic of heavily urbanised areas, including:

• Removal of native vegetation and habitat destruction
• Modified hydrology including increased peak run-off rates due to covering of land with hard surfaces, concrete storm water canals" and re-routing of water courses
• Pollution from motor vehicles, litter, sewage, illegal dumping, industrial, commercial and domestic activities
• Nutrient enrichment from surrounding environment, especially due to water runoffs from recreational parks, resulting in increased algal levels

Water quality testing conducted by the Water Research Centre found quantities of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals at levels similar to untreated sewage. A very old and broken sewerage system has been blamed for the contaminants which included soaps, insecticides, caffeine and anticonvulsants.

A group of local Councils fund the project named Riverlife, which trains tour guides and organises interpretive walking and cycling tours of the "river" most weekends.