Palmiet River Watch Project – Page 2 – Palmiet River Valley Conservancy

New Back-up generators will prevent raw sewerage and industrial waste from being discharged into the Palmiet River during power outages.

31 July 2013 | Mariclair Smit

RESIDENTS living along the Palmiet River can now experience better quality water down stream, thanks to the back-up generator commissioned by the eThekwini Waste Water network operations.

According to Mike Hebbelmann, area engineer for Waste Water Network:Operations branch, the first step which was one of three back up power generators, was commissioned at the Blair Road sewer pump station in Pinetown last Tuesday.

“This means whenever there is a power outage in the future, raw sewerage and industrial waste water from Pinetown and New Germany industrial areas will no longer discharge into the Palmiet River,” said Hebbelmann.

He said two more generators at Birdhurst pump station and Methven pump station will be rolled out over the next six weeks.

Hebbelmann said there are also plans to place back up generators in Hillcrest – at the Heritage Market, Stonewall Road and Hillcrest Shopping Centre in the next couple of months.

While all can be thankful about the new back up generator, residents have been warned that this generator will only kick in if there is an interruption to the power supply, and will not work if the internal cables are stolen.

Lee D’Eathe, a resident living along the river, said people who have reported that the river no longer has bird life, fish and crabs, can be assured that this will recover quite well now, with the good quality of water flowing down stream.

Westville resident, Calya Morgan, is highly concerned with the pollution tat was flowing doen the Palmiet River last Friday. (Photo: Tim Brauteseth)

An unknown substance was dumped into the Palmiet river in the early hours of Friday morning.

13 March 2013 | Lloyd Mackenzie

UPDATE: 13/03/2013

The department of pollution and environment respond to the Palmiet’s pollution problem.

Senior manager for the pollution and environment department, Christopher Fennemore, said they were notified of the pollution at 6.45am on Friday morning and three staff members were on the scene at 7.30am.

“The source of the problem had stopped by the time our staff were notified and the residual effects were washing downstream. Therefore some detective work is now required because the source could not be located immediately. Samples were taken in an attempt to characterise the problem,” said Fennemore.

According to Fennemore the waste dumped was a surface active agent which is a component of detergent. He believes it would not take much detergent to do this to a river. The results will be released in a week and a survey will be undertaken to observe if there was any damage done to the wildlife.

“We do not know whether this was blatant or negligent dumping. In either case we take a very tough stance on such dumping and if a culprit is found regulatory action will be taken,” said Fennemore.

11/03/2013

The usually clear and pristine Palmiet river was awash with volumous clouds of white bubbles on Friday morning, after it was badly polluted.

The Highway Mail was inundated with calls from concerned residents in the Westville area who were angry about the pollution. “If you look at the history of the river there used to be large amounts of wildlife that could be found in and around it, now they are no longer around, or greatly diminished. Rivers are the arteries of our world and we need to respect our Earth. When will people wake up?” questioned Jean Senogles, avid conservationist.

According to Senogles, on Friday afternoon the river started to cope with the pollution that had been dumped in it earlier that morning.

The name of the substance that was dumped in the river is not yet known or the effect the pollution will have on the plant and animal life around the river.

Questions were forwarded to the municipality but no comment has been received. Updates to follow.

Back-up generator pumps life back into river – 31 July 2013