Olifants River ecosystem change & croc mass mortality

[H. erectus]

But anyway, another reason not to blow up dams and artificial water points just yet, IMO!

Artificial dams would just collect artificial pollutant!!! Simply open the sluis and flush through,
damage done and accepted!!!


To blow -up artificial(boreholes) water points still befuddle me!!

Fact is, more responsibility should be found up-stream!!!

Perhaps Sanparks can waste their monies there somewhat more
often, taking education to task!!

[Richprins]

I mean the smaller dams on "internal" rivers, not the few big ones in the big rivers, H. !

[Sprocky]

2014-01-08

Johannesburg - An impoundment dam at Bosveld Phosphates' fertiliser plant was the cause of the spillage of contaminated water into the Selati River, the company said on Wednesday.

The spillage resulted from high rainfall during late December in the Phalaborwa area, where the plant and dam were located, Bosveld Phosphates said in a statement.

The spillage occurred on 31 December for a brief period.

"Bosveld engineers responded immediately to the emergency and the leak was repaired within 24 hours," the company said.

"It was later found that a concrete storm water canal on the site had cracked due to water pressure, allowing ingress of polluted process water and resulting in a secondary leak into the river," it said.

This had been reduced to a trickle by 1 January and stopped completely on Monday.

On Monday, SA National Parks (SANParks) said the part of the river affected was near the Phalaborwa entrance of the Kruger National Park (KNP).

"Heavy rains in Phalaborwa over the weekend of 28-29 December 2013 contributed to the overflow of the tailings dam," SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla said in a statement.

This resulted in highly acidic water flowing into the Selati River, he said.

"The Selati River is an important tributary of the Olifants River, arguably the most environmentally stressed major river system in South Africa and an important shared watercourse with Mozambique."

Safe water

Phaahla said the spillage was being investigated. Other affected rivers were being monitored, he said.

The water inside the KNP's tourist camps was not affected.

"SANParks took immediate precautions to ensure safe water supply to tourist camps in the park," Phaahla said at the time.

Bosveld Phosphates was confident that due to the high dilution factor caused by the Selati River's strong flows and the downstream of the Olifants River, there would be no lasting harm to the environment.

"The Bosveld team has been wrestling with a legacy water management challenge since acquiring the mothballed plant from Sasol in October 2011 and starting operations early in 2012," the company said.

"The challenge was compounded by the extraordinarily high rainfall in the Phalaborwa area over the past two years, exceeding the 1:50 year flood level in January 2012 and the 1:100 year flood level in January 2013."

This was exacerbated by the high rainfall in December.

The company would continue its efforts to put in place long-term corrective measures which had been decided on in consultation with external specialists and the relevant authorities.

"Bosveld would like to thank representatives of the department of water affairs, SANParks, Palabora Copper and Foskor for their support and assistance over the last week," it said.

- SAPA

[Sprocky]

2014-01-09

Skukuza – A spillage of polluted water from a tailings dam at Bosveld Phosphate, a mining operation, into the Selati River near Phalaborwa into the Olifants River will not affect visitors to the park, as precautions have been made to ensure that all drinking water is safe.

SANParks announced in a press release that all camps dependent on the Olifants River for water have been switched onto back-up borehole water.

Associated water use restrictions have also been put in place to ensure that the demand was met. Water quality is, thus, unaffected in all Kruger camps.

The Star reports that the spillage could, however, have serious implications for tourism. A park manager, Eddie Rindell said that the spillage comes as a hard lesson for the park and that it could affect tourism in the long run.

He told the paper that fish had died in the Selati River and that they had yet to determine the effects on larger animals.

The Department of Water Affairs and South African National Parks are cooperating closely on investigations into this incident and are conducting in-depth investigations into the associated environmental impacts. Intensive monitoring of the environmental conditions are on-going to evaluate the scale of the degradation.

[Sprocky]

2014-01-10

Cape Town - The Water Research Commission (WRC) has embarked on an extensive study which aims to map surface and underground water currently influenced by mines.

“The atlas will be a significant and timely contribution that can inform the implementation of commitments made in the past two years,” said Dr Jo Burgess, WRC research manager.

According to the WRC, the impacts of the mining industry on aquatic and terrestrial habitats are severe and have a long-term nature.

The atlas, comprising several chapters, will illustrate South Africa's hydrological characteristics and cover topics including water resources and water distribution.

These features will be overlaid with a map of mining activities in order to understand the areas where water resources and mining collide.

A major impact of mining activity on water sources occurs through acid mine drainage (AMD), where by-products of the mining process interact with water to create acidity with varying levels of toxicity.

According to Consultancy Africa Intelligence, the worst AMD cases are seen in the vicinity of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand. But communities along the Vaal and Limpopo Rivers are also being threatened.

In a recent incident the Selati River, an important tributary of the Olifants River, was contaminated with highly acidic water after heavy rains caused the overflow of an impoundment dam at Bosveld Phosphate’s fertiliser manufacturing plant in Phalaborwa.

One of the biggest challenges will be to get access to the large amounts of data residing with private consultants and mining companies.

Some of South Africa’s biggest mining operations, including Anglo Platinum and BHP Billiton, have pledged their assistance.

"If we did not have a collegial reference group full of people willing to share whatever data they can, the atlas could not become a reality," Burgess said.

[Sprocky]

2014-01-10

Cape Town - The discharge from an undisclosed factory in Durban has led to the mass killing of thousands of fish in the iSipingo River, according to a report.

The Mercury reported that thousands of dead fish washed up on the on the banks of the river mouth in the south of Durban earlier this week.

Municipal spokesperson, Thabo Mofokeng, has refused to disclose the name of the factory or the type of pollutant.

Mofokeng said the factory had been discharging the pollutant illegally. The river has since taken on a black colour with a strong smell permeating the area.

Authorities have advised the public not to swim or fish in the area until the matter has been resolved.


- News24

[H. erectus]

All this happening while it reflects bad on the control levels
in place that would prevent pollution!!

Still the authorities want to allow for fracking in the Karroo...
A ludicrous idea.

[Sprocky]

2014-01-12

Mbombela - The company responsible for a toxic spill into the Selati and Olifants rivers, said the leak has been repaired.

The leak killed fish over a 15km stretch of water and forced the Kruger National Park, through which the Olifants flows, to switch to borehole water to protect several camps that usually use river water.

Bosveld Phosphates chief executive Andrew McLaggan said in a press statement that exceptional rainfall in late December caused an impoundment dam at the company’s fertiliser manufacturing plant in Phalaborwa to overflow.

“This resulted in a spillage of contaminated process water into the Selati River for a brief period on 30 December 2013. Bosveld engineers responded immediately to the emergency and the leak was repaired within 24 hours,” said McLaggan.

McLaggan said it was later found on 31 December that a concrete storm water canal on the site had cracked due to water pressure, resulting in a secondary leak into the river.

“This had been reduced to a trickle by 1 January and stopped completely on 6 January 2014. Bosveld is confident that, due to the very high dilution factor caused by strong flows in the Selati River and the Olifants River downstream, there will be no lasting harm to the environment,” he said.

The Bosveld team has been wrestling with a legacy of water management challenges since acquiring the mothballed plant from Sasol in October 2011 and starting operations early in 2012, McLaggan said.

“The challenge was compounded by the extraordinarily high rainfall in the Phalaborwa area over the past two years, exceeding the 1:50 year flood level in January 2012 and the 1:100 year flood level in January 2013, exacerbated by very high rainfall in December 2013,” McLaggan said.

According to the press statement, the directors of Bosveld will continue with their efforts to put in place long term corrective measures that are agreed in close consultation with external specialists and the relevant authorities.

Meanwhile, the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs (DWEA) has laid criminal charges against the company's owners.

“We have already taken administrative action and have laid criminal charges against Bosveld Phosphates for contravening the National Water Act,” said DWEA director for compliance monitoring and enforcement Nigel Adams.

Adams said that samples had revealed water quality in the dam was well below the levels stipulated in the Act.

“Meetings with the mining company are taking place to come up with an action plan. This is a parallel process focusing on both investigating the incident and preventing further incidents,” said Adams.

Adams added that more charges could be added depending on the results of the investigation.

“We are adopting a zero tolerance approach and want to have everything investigated as soon as possible,” Adams said.

SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla said that a forensic report on the incident was being compiled and would be released soon.

- African Eye

[Sprocky]

Media Release: Ongoing concern for the Selati and Olifants Rivers

Date: 20th January 2014

The South African National Parks (SANParks) today announced ongoing concern over water pollution threats from the Bosveld Phosphate operation near Phalaborwa. Unauthorized discharge of polluted water from the fertilizer production plant into the Selati River between 30 December 2013 and 5 January 2014 resulted in immediate acute toxicity evidenced resulting in a massive fish kill.

The Department of Water Affairs, Department of Environmental Affairs and South African National Parks are continuing to cooperate closely on both the operational responses and the investigation associated with this incident. Senior representatives from the Department of Water Affairs’ the Department of Environmental Affairs’ Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) Directorates and South African National Parks met with the Board of Directors of Bosveld Phosphate last week. A number of immediate response actions are being developed and technical task teams have now been established to deal with both short term and longer-term threats and risks.

On Thursday morning a new spillage was observed by SANParks personnel which drained into the Selati River. This was also revealed to the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, MP, who then accompanied SANParks and DWA CME officials to the spill site on Thursday afternoon. Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi expressed concern and commitment to ensuring that the matter received high priority attention.

Relatively stable weather has been predicted for the next 2 weeks by the SA Weather Services. This will enable the implementation of the immediate response measures by Bosveld Phosphate to alleviate the threat of further spillages. SANParks is however concerned that industry is not adapting fast enough to climate variability in their risk management approaches and that further incidents of this nature may become more frequent. Reacting to the new developments Dr. Stefanie Freitag-Ronaldson said that sincere commitment needs to be shown by Bosveld Phosphate to address the new spillage and its effects as well as to ensure that no further spillages occur. “Real urgency is required from Bosveld Phosphate’s Board and management and the team needs to move fast to avoid a catastrophic ecological disaster” said Freitag-Ronaldson.

The Olifants River is an important river for the economies of South Africa and Mozambique and as a result is highly pressurised. It is also a very important component of the ecosystem of the Kruger National Park. In recent years this river has shown signs of chronic ecological degradation including the disease and death of top aquatic predators such as crocodiles.

Three tourist camps in the Kruger National Park, usually supplied with water from the Olifants River, continue to be supplied by safe potable water from nearby boreholes. A detailed monitoring programme has been implemented by SANParks to evaluate the short, medium and long term impact of these spillages on the aquatic ecosystem.

Issued by:
South African National Parks (SANParks) Kruger National Park Communications
Tel: 013 735 4300

Enquiries:
Nigel Adams,
Director: Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Department of Water Affairs
Cell: 082 806 5306.

Ike Phaahla,
Media Specialist, South African National Parks
Cell: 083 673 6974
Email: isaac.phaahla@sanparks.org

Dr Eddie Riddell,
Manager: Water Resources, Kruger National Park, South African National Parks
Cell: 072 337 1274

Dr Stefanie Freitag-Ronaldson,
General Manager: Savanna Research Unit, Scientific Services, South African National Parks
Cell: 082 908 2678.

[Richprins]

Media Release: SANParks Provides Alert on Potential Harmful Algae Bloom in Lower Olifants River

28 April 2021

South African National Parks (SANParks) Scientists studying the Olifants River within the Kruger National Park, part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park have been monitoring water quality effects on the health of the aquatic ecosystem. Recent satellite observations are suggesting the rapid build-up of a potential harmful Algal Bloom in the lower Olifants River, as it flows through a deep gorge with a large Nile crocodile population before it enters the large Massingir Dam in the Republic of Mozambique.

The scientists have embarked on a detailed monitoring program to assess the impacts of this algal bloom on the crocodile population and the aquatic ecosystem more broadly.

These conditions have arisen due to a combination of several factors including very high lake levels in Massingir Dam following the good summer rains, increased water clarity allowing mono-cellular algae to access sunlight and build up large biomass; high nutrient inputs (pollution) from upstream catchment areas; and the warm early winter temperatures experienced that increase surface water temperature.

SANParks is also keeping park and catchment management partners informed in South Africa and Mozambique and through this collaboration intends to mitigate the negative impacts of this event on the health of the ecosystem of the Olifants River and those that depend on its resources downstream.

Head of Conservation and Area Integrity Management in Kruger National Park, Mr Danie Pienaar says "we have learned valuable scientific lessons about the mechanisms giving raise to Pansteatitis outbreaks and the impact on the park's crocodile population following the outbreak of this disease in 2008 - 2009. This time we are at least forewarned and will do proactive monitoring and research to track the situation together with our Mozambican colleagues.'

Issued by:
South African National Parks - Kruger National Park

Media enquiries:
Isaac Phaahla
GM: Communications & Marketing - SANParks
Tel: 013 735 4363; Cell 083 673 6974
Email: Isaac.phaahla@sanparks.org