LOW rainfall over the past year has been blamed for a poor health report card for the city’s creek catchments.
This year’s annual report, council’s sixth, found water quality in most of the city’s creeks declined.
Fourteen of the 15 creek catchments rated poor to fair condition with seven getting “D” ratings in Redlands Waterways Recovery Report, released last week.
Thornlands, Moogurrapum, Macleay Island, Cleveland, Weinam, Serpentine and Torquay Creeks all got reports indicating water quality was poor.
Seven got “C” ratings. Tarradarrapin, Hilliards, Native Dog, Coolnwynpin, Eprapah Creeks, Lamb and Russell Islands were given fair ratings.
There was good news for Upper Tingalpa Creek, which remained in good health and Eprapah Creek also improved from poor to fair.
This year’s results indicate there is an overall decline in the freshwater creek water quality ratings compared to last year.
The number of creek catchments with a poor condition rating rose from 7 per cent to 47per cent since 2013.
In 2014-15 the overall condition of eight catchments remained steady and a new location, Torquay catchment at Redland Bay, included.The decline in overall water quality was influenced by a range of factors including the scale and magnitude of vegetation clearing, changes to catchments and stormwater input.
The report aims to give a snapshot of creek condition across the city and an update on council’s response to improving waterway health.
Redland mayor Karen Williams said the report acknowledged there was still work to be done.
“This year’s success story was Eprapah Creek Catchment which, despite lower flow saw an improvement in its overall condition,” she said. “Eprapah Creek is a strategic focus of our waterways extension program, so it’s great to see community efforts paying off.
“As our City is the end of the line for many of the region’s waterways, our local estuaries carry the outflow from those catchments.
“But we never let this be an excuse in our own efforts to improve local waters.”
