GeoCatch, a community based management body working to improve the health of the Vasse River has been granted $250,000 over three years from the Commonwealth Government’s Clean Seas Program to help clean up the river.
The catchment partners of this community driven initiative also include the Shire of Busselton and the Western Australian Water and Rivers Commission. The Lower Vasse River, in the town of Busselton, is in poor ecological condition. It suffers from regular and potentially toxic blue-green algal blooms.
The aesthetic and environmental impacts and odours associated with the algal blooms have caused considerable community concern. GeoCatch coordinator Claire Thorstensen said, studies of Vasse River water quality indicate that discharges from industrial and urban runoff are a major contributor to nutrients and sediment in the river.
“These pollutants fuel the algal blooms that the river experiences during the summer months,” Claire Thorstensen said.
Efforts are being directed at reducing the recycling of nutrients from sediments back into the water column. GeoCatch and the Shire of Busseltown are vegetating stormwater detention basins with wetland plants, and beginning a process which will see the start of a new era in cleaning up the Vasse River.
Staff from GeoCatch and the Shire of Busselton have joined forces to get the detention basins located on the foreshore of the lower Vasse River, up and running in a similar way to a constructed wetland.
Detention basins constructed along the Vasse River slow the incoming water allowing sediments to settle and encouraging absorption of nutrients by plants. As the basins fill up, the clean water on the top flows into the river.
The Lower Vasse River Clean-Up project has been strengthened by the monitoring of water quality on the Lower Vasse River and the detention basins by year 11 Biology students of MacKillop Catholic College.
For further information contact Claire Thorstensen, Water & Rivers Commission, telephone (08) 9754 4331 or email claire.thorstensen@wrc.wa.
