Page 508 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 28 June 1989
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Some of the problems with pollution deal with chemical pollution. Some of the chemical pollution problems that need to be addressed are herbicides which are used on our gardens and which flow down through our water drainage systems into our water collection areas. We need to test for those.
Some of the fertilisers and the pesticides that we use can also be washed down into our water systems. Having an ability to respond quickly to those pollutants, to be able to measure them and determine what action needs to be taken, is particularly important. It is my understanding that this Bill will give the officers of the Administration an ability to respond faster under such circumstances.
Further pollution of course is the sediments from the land. This can be caused in a series of ways. Poor farming practices, sand and gravel extraction and pine tree clear-felling on higher slopes all lead to sediments that can be washed into our water system.
A member: Building sites.
MR MOORE: And building sites; thank you. Some of those are already taken care of in a joint NCDC-ACT Administration standard practices document which my colleague Mr Jensen has provided to me.
Mr Jensen: And will refer to.
MR MOORE: He will refer to that. Recreational use is also another area that of course has an impact. Walking, swimming, four-wheel drives, motor bikes and boats in catchment areas all contribute to polluting our water supplies and our streams. We are not suggesting for one minute that those activities which add to the quality of our life sometimes should be absolutely banned. What we are looking to do is monitoring the pollutant effects of them, to be able to do that quickly, and then to be able to determine in a rational way what needs to be done from there.
Of course there is the runoff from urban areas - from garden fertilisers, as I have mentioned, and from pollutants such as oil and petrol. I notice in the parking area where I put my bicycle under this building that quite a lot of oil has dripped from cars - I presume it is not from one of the Minister's new cars, but it is more likely from one of my colleagues' old Volkswagens.
It is an area that also needs monitoring. These oil drips and so forth on the roads are then washed into our systems, and we need that monitoring. Industrial and domestic wastes also fit into this category. The ACT water supply can be affected by all of these things. We need to take care; we need to have tight controls, and we need to have the ability to respond quickly on those.
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