Blue Mountains water not for drinking

Press, 29 January 1988, Page 17

Blue Mountains water not for drinking

By

GEOFF MEIN

(Story and photographs)

Phil Foster’s most striking feature is his long, straggly beard. It resembles the principal love of his life, the Australian wilderness. As president of the Blue Mountains branch of Australia’s National Parks Association, he spends much of his time lobbying to protect the mountains from the ravages of man. He and his conservationist friends are in danger of losing the battle. All but one of the rivers that flow from the mountains are polluted. Only Kowmung River, south-west of Katoomba, is drinkable along its entire length. The polluted waterways include the Coxs River, which feeds the Warramgamba Dam—the main source of Sydney’s water. The problem, according to Phil Foster, lies in the attitudes of many people who live in the towns that have sprung up on ridges fringing the National Park. Low property values in the mountains have over the last few decades attracted thousands of new residents from Sydney and its surrounds. Most have moved to the mountains because housing is affordable, not because they have any special love of the environment. “The trouble is, they bring their suburban values with them ... A lot of people think their responsibility ends when they pull the chain,” says Phil Foster. Unfortunately, the region’s modest sewerage system has been unable to keep pace with the rapid spread of housing. Alarming quantities of effluent have spilled into the numerous streams that flow from the ridges into the park. On the banks of streams immediately below sewage outlets, native plants are being choked by exotic weeds which thrive on the extra nutrients.

Some plants unique to the Blue Mountains are under threat, including a rare conifer that grows at the base of the Wentworth Falls, one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions. Houses are being built on ridges above the falls, and sewage is running into Wentworth Creek, which spills over the falls. Phil Foster says there are probably less than 100 of the conifers left in the world. “They need highly oxygenated water to survive. You don’t need to be too astute to realise that if anything happens to those streams, the conifers clap out.” He is also worried about rare orchids which grow only in the mountains’ hanging swamps. “The swamps are pretty peculiar to the Blue Mountains, and very vulnerable to pollution. You only have to disturb the water table and they drain and are gone. Or if somebody builds a house above them with a septic tank, they could be destroyed. “Only last year, a new type of lizard was discovered in the swamps. There are all sorts of things out there that we don’t know anything about. And if they don’t watch it, they’ll be gone before we even learn.” The National Parks Association thinks clean water is of paramount importance. “If you’re going to have a national park, you’ve got to preserve all the ecosystems. You can’t do that with dead streams,” says Phil Foster. It seems, however, that the conservationists will have to put up with polluted streams for a long time. Perhaps forever.

The Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board, which has taken over responsibility for the Blue Mountains, has declared drinking water quality an “unattainable aim.”. The board has spent more than $4O million upgrading water and sewerage systems in the mountains since 1980, and plans to spend a further $125 million over the next two decades. But improvements will not lead to “drinking water” quality in the streams. A recent board report confirmed what the conservationists feared: “The reality is that a drinking water objective for the Blue Mountains National Park is totally incompatible with the existing ridge-top urbanisation accommodating more than 60,000 people.” The board says the improvements will lead to what it calls a 4km assimilation zone. This means sewage entering the streams will be assimilated with the water 4km downstream from sewage outlets. Phil Foster says this is not good enough. “We. want zero assimilation. That 4km is the area that gets the most use by people coming to the mountains.” He believes the Blue Mountains are so important that if the sewage cannot be treated to allow clear, drinkable water, it should be piped off the mountains. Board investigations concluded that recycling sewage, or diverting it off the mountains, would

be either too difficult, too costly, or both. Phil Foster might, therefore, be right when he says the solution is to encourage mountain residents to take their environmental responsibilities more seriously. That is easier said than done, he says. “Many residents take the mountains for granted. They say it (the park) has always been there, and it is a great place to dump rubbish. “It always surprises me that people from overseas marvel about the mountains, come to really love them, and fight for little bits of them. Yet Australians couldn’t give a damn. “Unless people are prepared to pay more to fix the sewerage, you are always going to have these problems. You only get what you pay for.” The Blue Mountains City Council has, according to Phil Foster, been less than helpful. “They don’t think conservation is such a big deal. Local aidermen (councillors) write us off as ratbag greenies.” “They don’t have an environmental officer on their staff. As a group that is selling the environment to the public, they bloody well ought to.”

Council elections held late last year were seen as a further backward step for conservation. A group of writers and artists, who have long used the Blue Mountains as a retreat, formed a party called Mountain Watch. They hoped their pledges to protect the environment would carry them to power. But the amount of noise they generated during the campaign was not matched by results on polling day. Only one of their number was elected. Phil Foster says the group shot itself in the foot. "They were a bit elitist—out of touch with the wishes of most residents. “They came on a bit heavy and were telling people how to feel. Most people who live on the mountains are a bit more down to earth.” The election result, he says, reinforces his view about the attitudes of most residents. “They are only worried about all the other things people are worried about—schools, roads, health. The environment where they live is way down the bottom. “On a national level, our consciousness towards the environment is getting higher, but just because they (mountain residents) live here in a unique part of Australia doesn’t mean they think about it 10 per cent more than anybody else. “In local politics, they vote for someone they know. The butcher got in, even though he resigned half way through his last term because he said he couldn’t work with them. He might be a good butcher, but he knows nothing about politics.” Phil Foster speaks of his deeprooted concern for the wilderness as a father would discuss the growth of his child. He has lived in the mountains for 20 years, and has established an exotic plant nursery at Springwood to allow him to work in the shadow of his beloved forest. Whatever the odds, he and his friends say they will continue to fight for clear, drinkable water in all of Australia’s national parks. “That may be an ideal that is hard to obtain, but it doesn’t stop us striving for it.”

Potable streams not envisaged

Setback on election day