Fish, yabbies and aquatic life dead after 'toxic' herbicide treatment in irrigation channel

Fish, yabbies and aquatic life dead after 'toxic' herbicide treatment in irrigation channel

Source: abc

1/22/2021

Mal Johnson is not happy. The Cohuna farmer has spent the past few days cleaning up dead fish and plants from an irrigation channel on his property in northern Victoria.

"I walked up onto the channel bank, looked into the water and there was just a foot-wide stream of fish, all dead," Mr Johnson said.

The Torrumbarry Irrigation Channel was injected this week with the toxic herbicide Acrolein to get rid of weeds that are blocking up the system that provides water to more than 100 farming properties in the region.

"I've walked up here several times in the last few days, and I go home and say why? Why does this keep on happening to our environment? It's just not fair," Mr Johnson said.

Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) notified irrigators about the herbicide treatment and told them not to use water from the channels for 72 hours afterwards.
Water full of dead fish is meant to be safe

But three days later, Mr Johnson is still removing dead fish from the water.

"This channel is meant to be safe to use today," he said.

But he's concerned that the dead fish and plants in the water may cause botulism in cattle.

GMW assistant manager Tim Nitschke said the water was safe for use.

"I'm extremely confident that it is safe," he said.

"There have been many, many studies done on this product. We've also done multiple and extensive water quality testing programs to demonstrate that," he said.

Mr Nitschke said fish kills were to be expected during the herbicide treatment, but there was no alternative.