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.

Australia's international sustainability commitments

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

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 Derwent estuary and that's to start!

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 it. While we're at it we also aim to clean up all of the catchment inputs too.

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This is the world's largest holsitic river remediation project!

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AND...we're going to use impact investing from the private sector to fund it.

THE PLAN

Finally...after 200 years...here's the plan

The plan gets updated as the project builds - the latest version is 18 April 2019

#actionnotrhetoric

THE RISK

The heavy metals are constantly being physically remobilised...

and now Climate Change is playing a role

Could the Derwent estuary become a complete dead zone?

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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

CONNECT WITH US

Contact us 

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.