Original image of Savage River accompanying B Hart & P Sugden article – before the spill – published on Tasmanian Times on 11 March 2013
Follow up image of Savage River by TPEHN investigator – 10 days after the flood surge same location
“I have never seen anything like it…” Pieman locals tell another story
Last week Pieman River locals told a Tasmanian Public Environmental Health Network [TPEHN] investigator that they had: “Never seen anything like the muddy waters last week.”
TPEHN visited the Tarkine last week and spoke with several Pieman River locals about the flood of muddy water photographs of which appeared on TT here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/alex-schaap-was-incorrect/
One local said that another long-time local had told him “I have never seen anything like it” and that they were both wondering why the two day long muddy flood had occurred. The muddy water finished up at Corinna on the Pieman River along with elevated river levels.
Another person said that over the years they have lived at the Pieman River: “Even after a full week’s heavy winter rain I have not seen the Pieman turn this colour” and that “last week when the waters turned muddy, we only had drizzle for two days, and that would have been absorbed – not enough to even run off”.
The local residents who TPEHN spoke to did not wish to be named.
Curious contradictions between statements quoted in [i]The Mercury[/i] on the 16th March from Tasmanian EPA Director, Alex Schaap and Grange Resources Executive Director, Wayne Bould. Their statements require further explanation …
Director Alex Schaap said the release was believed to have started on Thursday night
Water backed up behind tailings in the dam and began discharging through the decant outlet for the dam, he said.
“This water may be carrying tailings with it into a creek system, which discharges into the Savage River, and so it is possible that tailings may find their way into Savage River and some discolouration may become evident,” he said.
Ms Schaap said the tailings from the mine were not a risk.
“The tailings do not contain any processing chemicals of concern nor is metal contamination a major concern as it is further south around Queenstown,” he said.
Grange Resources executive director, Wayne Bould said the tailings water was alkaline and contained sediment.
“It has the potential to be acid-forming but we have contained it on the creek system on our site and there is no discharge into the Savage River,” he said.’
Surely the EPA Director is not required to express ‘beliefs’ but verifiable facts. Grange Resources would have had some idea of when the ‘event’ occurred in order to notify the EPA of this.
Alex Schaap talks about the possibility of tailings entering the Savage River and possibly causing discolouration yet Wayne Bould says the spill is contained and will not discharge into the Savage River.
There appear to be two different stories being told here.
B. Hart and P. Sugden commented on the previous article: [i]Alex Schaap was incorrect[/i]
The muddy colour of the river is unusual as when the river rises it doesn’t usually get a sediment load, says one anonymous observer concurs with local’s knowledge and others commenting on tt.
here: http://tasmaniantimescom/index.php?/weblog/article/alex-schaap-was-incorrect/show_comments
A few responses to the “rain theory” were:
J. Sheridan [Comment #18] wrote: Actually, it appears to me that there was significant rainfall that fell in the catchment to the east of Savage River between approx. 3:40pm – 6:20pm on the afternoon of March 10th 2013 Check out the RADAR images at;
http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR523-west-takone/2013-03-09-22/2013-03-10-22
The flood had started at approximately 2 am with the loud noise and “gassy smell” noticed by the bushwalking group camped on the banks of the Savage River.
Karl Stevens [Comment #24] responded: The BOM radar at West Takone was malfunctioning during part of March 2013. I contacted them after noticing anomalies. To quote their email to me “One of the functions on the radar is the suppression of permanent echoes caused by building hills or other obstructions and this is not working at the moment. This means that rogue echoes can pop up that are shown as rainfall on the radar but are not rain.
The radar was fixed on March 13. Apart from false ‘rain’ around Takone it was picking-up rain in Bass Strait for a few days that wasn’t there.
John Sumby [comment #27] wrote: I spoke to someone who knows that area and they said that to get a flood like that would need around 200 mm of rainfall in a short time.
Again J. Sheridan [Comment #33] wrote: Jon #27 The Weather Bureau records rainfall in the 24hr period to 9am. So the 17.0mm reported by Station Waratah 97014 on March 11th would have fallen between March 10th at 9am – March 11th at 9am, which covers the period for which the West Takone Radar shows rain echoes in the area.
This comment appears to be irrelevant given the observations of the bushwalking group that the water levels in the Savage River ‘had risen 3 to 4 metres’ by 6am on the 10th March.
Shaun [comment #40] wrote: As for 17mm or some similar figure [of rain ] falling at Savage River, that’s not what I’d call a major rainfall event in Western Tasmania where daily totals several times that value are reasonably common.
And finally David Obendorf [comment #42]: To have high turbidity water surge from a forested catchment where there is no logging, no agriculture and only one dirty great open cut mine with tailing dams in close proximity to Savage River, it’s a no-brainer…….
The Tasmanian EPA need to make full public disclosure about their investigation on these events at Grange Resources mine and exactly how broad their investigation has been.
