River Health
The Upper Derwent is affected by agricultural run-off, particularly from land clearing and forestry. The Lower Derwent suffers from extremely high levels of heavy metal contamination in sediments. The State Government-backed Derwent Estuary Program points out in particular that levels of mercury, lead, zinc and cadmium exceed national guidelines. They also recommend against consuming shellfish and caution against consuming fish in general. A large proportion of the heavy metal contamination comes from major industries that discharge into the river: an electrolytic zinc smelter at Lutana established in 1917, and a paper mill at Boyer which opened in 1941.
Read more about this topic: River Derwent (Tasmania)
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or health:
“At sundown, leaving the river road awhile for shortness, we went by way of Enfield, where we stopped for the night. This, like most of the localities bearing names on this road, was a place to name which, in the midst of the unnamed and unincorporated wilderness, was to make a distinction without a difference, it seemed to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The same soil is good for men and for trees. A man’s health requires as many acres of meadow to his prospect as his farm does loads of muck.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)