Lakes in Wilderness World Heritage Area Contaminated

Some lakes in the protected Wilderness World Heritage Area have heavy metal contamination levels among the highest ever recorded, says a new study. An environmental scientists, Simon Haberle says the findings are quite disturbing and the people of Tasmania need to know about it. Haberle from the Australian National University (ANU) helped carry out the research. "We have been able to model the distribution of the metals and the model tells us that the heavy metal comes from mining."

Professir Haberle said that they previously established that mining activity has contaminated rivers in Tasmania, however, the new research shows lakes up to 130 kilometers away from the mines have also been affected. It reveals that the heavy metal was transferred through the atmosphere to the isolated lakes and is now embedded in the sediment. A range of lakes on the west coast of Tasmania were strategically chosen to map the scale and severity of the contamination. Professor Haberle said the small lakes act like rain gauges. "They collect the rainfall water from the atmosphere." The study also found that the contamination was worse in areas closer to historical mining centres but was spread over an area much larger than originally anticipated.

The run-off from mining today is often captured in a tailings dam which, to the untrained eye, might appear to be just a large body of water but is actually full of chemicals.