A major issue faced by not only Council but also the Maroochy community is the long term water quality and overall health of the Maroochy River and its catchments. The health of the Maroochy River was recently highlighted with the release of the 2003 Ecosystem Health Report Card. Part of the Healthy Waterways Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program, the Report Card provides health ratings on South East Queensland waterways.
In the 2003 the Maroochy River was rated as having poor ecosystem health. This rating is a decline on the fair rating that the River received in both 2002 and 2001.
Council acknowledges the river’s lower environmental rating. It has informed the community and stakeholders that the river’s health is unlikely to change in the short term. An estimate of 15 years or longer is needed to fix current problems.
Following the release of the 2003 Ecosystem Health Report Card, Council has invested a great deal of time and resources into addressing the impacts of the river and has developed a number of important actions. These include a long term, community wide action plan and a comprehensive pilot project to generate important data on the river and its catchment areas.
The pilot project will enable Council to implement a range of strategies and assess their impact before widespread adoption throughout the Shire.
