Cafe Society: Derwent facing a watershed moment

CEO Ursula Taylor shares her passion for protecting the region’s most important estuary.

Derwent Estuary Program chief executive Ursula Taylor. Picture: EDDIE SAFARIK

THE Derwent estuary is not only a life-giving water source, it is an enduring source of fascination for Ursula Taylor. She has watched it closely for many years.

The chief executive of the Derwent Estuary Program says the system, which extends from New Norfolk through Hobart and south to the Iron Pot lighthouse, is in reasonably good shape.

“We are not out of the woods yet, we still have issues, as all cities do,” she says. “And that will be a constant challenge as population grows and there is more pressure on our wastewater and stormwater systems and our usage of the estuary itself.”

Tidal seawater and fresh river water mix in the sheltered estuarine water, and it is pretty salty at our meeting point: on Hobart’s Elizabeth Pier outside T42° bar/restaurant.

With the river sparkling and boats tinkling in the breeze, Ursula is delighted to be sitting by the river and not just writing and talking about it in her nearby office.

She has worked for 15 years at the not-for-profit organisation formed 20 years ago to monitor the estuary and provide data to government agencies, industry and the public. The River Derwent supplies the majority of Hobart’s drinking water and, while it is safe, not everything is as it should be. The Spotted handfish is endangered, poo bacteria (enterococci) closes swimming beaches and we are warned not to eat shellfish or bream harvested here. And these are just a few of the River Derwent’s inconvenient truths. Environmental challenges facing our river custodians include heavy-metals contamination.

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The upper estuary is prone to heightened nutrient levels rising in tandem with agriculture and aquaculture intensity. This in turn stimulates algal growth that smothers seagrasses that form critical habitat. Then there are the marine invaders, with the destructive Northern Pacific seastar a major pest.

Most of these problems are invisible to most of the community. But that’s not true of the estimated 100 tonnes of stormwater litter washing into the estuary each year.

Last month, Ursula turned up to a clean-up session at Prince of Wales Bay to be confronted by 300kg of mostly plastic litter washed onto the shore. “Takeaway containers, broken children’s toys, [foam] Nerf gun bullets, remnants of the latest crazes, and pieces of tiny broken plastic every-where,” she says. “One woman there said ‘I didn’t really believe my sister when she said you should get rid of your plastic straws, but that’s it, I am telling my kids no more straws’.”

While the co-operative approach of the Derwent Estuary Program means Ursula spends loads of time keeping everybody in the loop, she says the way in which disparate stakeholders come together with a common purpose is exemplary.

“Our collaborative model with industry participation [with legacy polluters such as Nyrstar zinc works and Norske Skog paper and pulp producer both involved] along with state and local governments is unique from a national perspective.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing that the organisations involved all acknowledge the industry is compromised from an environmental perspective, that [they] contribute to that problem and they want to be part of the solution.”

While the DEP’s remit is limited to gathering and sharing data, its influence and reach is considerable, and keeping the public informed is part of its mission. Ultimately, though, it is up to others — including the Marine Farming Planning Review Panel to which it presented a cautionary submission about expansion of salmon farming at Storm Bay — whether to take on board the analytical implications of the data.

Through numerous projects, great strokes have been made in cleaning up the river, with a significant reduction of legacy heavy metals through groundwater extraction, a 50 per cent reduction of heavy metal inputs from the zincworks and a 95 per cent reduction in organic matter coming from the paper mill in recent years.

In the city and downriver, Ursula says stormwater infrastructure remains challenged in places, but is being addressed broken pipe by pipe.

“It’s a constant maintenance challenge,” she says. And yet she remains positive overall. Indeed, she paints a wonderful future picture, with our beautiful river celebrated in an iconic annual festival honouring and celebrating the Derwent.

She wants to see riparian zones of creeks and rivers restored. New Zealand does this well, she says, with sensitive management of its catchments and waterways.

And treated wastewater is a wasted opportunity, she says, until much more of it is diverted for farm irrigation, particularly around New Norfolk, pointing to wastewater innovation at nearby Ti Tree.

Our city rivulet edges could be naturalised with beautiful, filtering vegetation to mitigate outflow impacts into our bays, and she would love to see more water-sensitive urban roofing designed to capture urban run-off in tanks, wetlands, porous paving and tree pits.

In her mind’s eye, kayakers are leaving Sullivans Cove after work, pulling in for a barbecue with family and friends in a new recreational area beyond the IMAS building, where there may or may not also be a river pool.

“The water quality right there is excellent,” she says with a laugh.