Waterways Check Comes On Stream

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday October 18, 2005

Neil Keene

NEWCASTLE City Council has begun an online assessment program that rates the city's creeks and streams according to their health.

Each of the city's 150 kilometres of creeks has been given a report card detailing its condition, accompanied with a letter rating under which A means "excellent" and E means "very poor".

Creeks Alive program officer Su Morley said each creek was rated according to its overall water quality, the number of water bugs present and its structure.

"Some are still healthy, some are showing the full impact of urban development," she said.

"You've got stormwater pollution, which reduces water quality, and more development roads, pavement, concrete means water doesn't absorb as much as it used to, it runs off into the catchment. "That creates erosion, which releases a lot of sediment into the system."

Ms Morley said Coal Mine Creek and Rainforest Creek, both in Blackbutt Reserve, were two of the city's best, and Dark Creek, in Birmingham Gardens, was at the other end of the scale.

The website is: www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/go/water.

Neil Keene