More than 100k fish killed at Salmon Ponds after ‘filthy substance’ spotted in Plenty River near trout hatchery
A spokesperson from Primary Industries (DPIPWE) has confirmed 105,000 brown trout fry, 12,000 rainbow trout fry, 43 brook trout broodstock and 25 display fish were lost from the Salmon Ponds grounds.
Ken Orr from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party visited the ponds last Wednesday soon after the reports of the fish kill at the operation near the Plenty River.
“The ponds themselves had changed colour to a dirty brown and the smell was very evident,” he said.
“The Salmon Ponds are right on the river, and it’s a flow-through system, the water comes out of the Plenty River and through the Salmon Ponds, and back into the river.
“I went down to the river to have a look, and it was filthy and a greasy substance on the water, foam on the water.
“There were fish struggling for oxygen, whatever it was it was reducing the dissolved oxygen levels in the water and creating an issue for the fish.”
EPA searching for ‘substance’ source
Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) was notified by the Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) of the fish kill on Wednesday afternoon.
EPA Director Wes Ford said as a result of the report, officers investigated further upstream.
“EPA officers identified that there had been a discharge of wastewater from the composting facility upstream of the salmon ponds,” he said.
“As a result of that, I issued an order for the composting facility to clean up that discharge of wastewater, and we are currently investigating the link between that discharge and the mortality of the trout in the salmon ponds.”
The upstream composting facility is authorised to receive liquid waste from a number of sources including Norske Skog paper sludge, pine bark and green waste.
Mr Ford said the composting operation also takes bio-solids, which is human sewage sludge.
“There are a number of services providers that are authorised to discharge their liquid waste into compost facilities,” he said.
“Waste from a range of different processing facilities in the primary industry sector in the state, that could be abattoirs, dairies, fish processing.
“It appears in this case the wastewater has been irrigated or sprayed onto some paddocks, and held in some bunded areas where one of the bunding areas appears to have ruptured or broken and the water then flowed into the river.”
The operator of the composting facility is in the process of ploughing the remaining wastewater into his paddock.
“I need to determine whether or not there have been any breaches of the legislation or the permit conditions,” Mr Ford said.
Despite being called the Salmon Ponds, most of the fish at the heritage hatchery are trout, with the first rainbow and brown trout in the Southern Hemisphere raised there in 1864.
For more than 100 years, the site has stocked lakes and dams around the state with over one million trout every year, but next season could be impacted by the death of some of these fish.
Bottled water brought in
Roderick Blair has lived on a property alongside the Plenty River for the past 22 years.
He received a call from a neighbour upstream to warn him of the pollutant.
“He called me at about two o’clock and said there was some sewage sludge heading your way, a plume of sewage sludge that they’d seen in the river,” he said.
“When I got home at five, the water at the bridge was a milky, coffee colour, it stank, had an odour of sewage.”
While there has been no official water alert, Mr Blair’s drinking water supply comes from the river so he said he had to buy bottled water.
He then filled up some drums at his parents’ house for livestock to drink.
“There was about half a dozen galaxias [fish] going along the edge of the riverbank looking for oxygen, they were coming up to the surface gasping,” Mr Blair said.
“It’s just disappointing that it happens in this day and age.
“It shouldn’t be happening in pristine water systems like it is in the Plenty River which leads into the Derwent River, which is above the Hobart water intake — it’s just ridiculous.”
‘Safe supply of water’ for drinking
The state’s water authority said about one per cent of the flow in the Derwent River is used for drinking water, so any small spills from the upper catchments is highly diluted by the river flows.
TasWater Department Manager Regional Services, Brendan Hanigan said the Bryn Estyn water treatment plant used chlorine dosing as the final disinfection process
“This system provides protection to ensure a safe supply of water for the customers of the greater Hobart area,” he said.
“We are unaware of any notification of a recent incident.
“In the event of any incident we work closely with the EPA on any issues that could potentially pose a risk to drinking water.”
River health ‘really important’
Concerns have also been raised about the health of the insect life, platypus, wild fish and eels in the river.
Elizabeth Cooper has lived on a property alongside the river for about 45 years and her 2,000 sheep and 200 head of cattle usually consume the water.
She said the river was generally very clear and you can “see the bottom.”
“The health of our river is really important for us for our long term management and we’ve looked after that river ever since we’ve been on that property,” she said.
“It has got a really healthy population of platypus, and native species of fish, and it’s important that we don’t wreck our environment.”
EPA investigating cause of pollution
Inland Fisheries Service (IFS), which manages the Salmon Ponds hatchery, reported an incident of polluted water to the EPA on Wednesday.
The EPA collected samples at the site and is continuing investigations.
Mr Orr said he had been calling for water sampling in the Plenty River for over a year, and described the incident as an “accident waiting to happen”.
“We can’t point the finger too much at the moment as to where this pollution occurred from, but we need some risk mitigation taking place on that river to protect this heritage site,” he said.
The EPA has asked DPIPWE to undertake a river health assessment.
The operator of the composting facility has been contacted for comment.
Tasmanian business owner Tim Jenkins in court over Plenty River pollution that caused mass fish kill
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-13/tasmanian-business-charged-over-environmental-pollution-plenty/101852488
A Tasmanian business owner has appeared in court for the first time after his company was charged with spilling waste material into the Plenty River, causing a significant fish kill.
In September 2020, the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) served Jenkins Hire Pty Ltd — which operates a composting and waste storage facility in Plenty, north of Hobart — with a notice alleging it was responsible for pollutants entering a nearby waterway, killing fish in the river and at nearby properties which draw water from it.
An EPA and Department of Primary Industries (DPIPWE) investigation found pollutants in the river resulted in the deaths of 100,000 brown trout fry, 12,000 rainbow trout fry, 43 brook trout broodstock and 23 display fish at the Salmon Ponds trout hatchery, which is a few kilometres downstream from Jenkins Hire.
In its notice to the company, the EPA also raised concerns that some of the waste material at Jenkins Hire’s property had entered the soil, which risked further waste material entering the river during a rain event.
In total, the business — represented in court by owner Timothy Jenkins — is alleged to have committed 11 breaches of the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act.
Those charges include polluting the environment intentionally or recklessly, and storing controlled waste in such a manner that it is reasonably likely it will escape into the environment.
The company is also facing allegations it stored controlled waste without authority, and has been using land for the disposal of general waste without authority.
The matter will return to the Hobart Magistrates Court on March 23.