SHOULD WE CLEAN UP THE DERWENT?
Sign-up to say YES
ABOUT US
Board of Directors
An experienced, skills based, majority independent board
Youth Advisory Council
Youth participation in the process and solutions is crucial.
Derwent Advisory Panel
Key stakeholder participation in the process and solutions
Technical Advisory Council
Some of Australia’s best scientists providing technical advice
Citizen Science Cluster
Meaningful community engagement, participation and process ownership
A Business-for-Purpose enterprise
Legally bound to a triple bottom line of Planet, People & Profit
Tasmanian Aboriginal Community
Derwent Remediation operates on Palawa country. We acknowledge the Palawa people as the traditional custodians of the Tasmanian region and pay our respects to Palawa elders past and present. We are committed to a positive future with and for the Aboriginal community.
Our international sustainability commitments
This project supprts the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
This project addresses 10 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
This project addresses all 20 of the Aichi Targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity
Aichi Target icons Copyright BIP/SCBD
THE LEGACY
The Derwent estuary is documented as one of the world's most polluted waterways
POLLUTION
e.g. heavy metals - est 150,000 tonnes
ECOLOGICAL IMPACT
79 Invasive species - e.g. est 30 million Northern Pacific Seastars
SOCIAL IMPACT
No swim zones and fish eating restrictions
Yes, some of the polluter inputs have been reduced, but the remaining legacy is very severe
Don't be fooled by the beautiful view...
THE OPPORTUNITY
Become the showcase for the world on how to remediate a major estuary
There's only one way to work out how to remediate the River Derwent and that's to start!
In the estuary, sediment remediation has been done before so we're not reinventing the wheel. We simply need to work out which solutions and technology fit best and develop a small pilot project to prove that we can fix the legacy without making it worse. While we're at it we also aim to clean up all of the catchment inputs too.
This is the world's largest holsitic river remediation project!
AND...we're going to use impact investing from the private sector to get started and develop an institutional investment model to fund the overall project.
THE PLAN
Finally...after 200 years...here's the plan
The plan gets updated as the project builds - the latest version is May 2021
#actionnotrhetoric
THE RISK
The heavy metals are constantly being physically remobilised...
and now Climate Change is playing a major role
Could the Derwent estuary become a complete dead zone?
Science now shows that Ocean acidification combined with eutrophication (nutrients coming down from the catchment) causes a chemical reaction in the bottom waters of estuaries. This chemical reaction releases heavy metals in a soluble form. These soluble metals are bioavailable and poison plants and animals.
If you don't want to read the whole paper, look for the highlighted bits
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If you are a community group, club, school or other organisation that would like us to personally present our project, or you have issues, concerns or questions, please feel free to contact us via the form below.