Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

Click here for Botany Bay Catchment Map

Click here for ABORGINAL LAND COUNCILS IN SYDNEY MAP

Click here for sub-catchments: CMA map  

Under the Sydney Metropolitan CMA breakdown the Botany Bay Catchment does not exist.  We have the Eastern Beaches sub-catchment, which covers the north of Botany Bay to the the CBD fringe;  the Cooks Catchment; and the Georges Catchment will includes all of Kurnell.  Comparing this map with the Southern Sydney CMB map of the 2002 Blueprint we find that Waverley municipality is now in the Parramatta subcatchment(previously Botany Bay) and Cronulla South is in the Georges Subcatchment(previously Port Hacking - Hacking has also shrunk in the south).  

Gary Blaschke has warned the leaders of the State’s two major political parties to stop playing pre-election games with the Cooks River.
The proudly outspoken activist, who was recently awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his environmental work, says he fears voters may be hoodwinked by multimillion dollar promises to save the river. He  predicts the Cooks River shall probably never see the State Government’s election package of $2.2m for councils to regenerate the riverbanks with native plants - or the further $2m `earmarked’ for improving the catchment area.
Similarly, he argues the Liberals, though more detailed, have also inflated figures for a plan to pump $5m into building an additional wetlands site near Belfield with six vertical flow filters with pipe traps to collect rubbish.
“It’s a matter of let’s be fair dinkum about this and tell the truth:’ Mr Blaschke told the Torch. “Neither of the parties is telling the truth. “I don’t think they-re really serious about this.
They’re both throwing an extra $3m on the project and it’s going nowhere.
“We won’t fix the river until we seriously look at what the major problems are with the water quality.”
Mr Blaschke said he would like to see the removal of the concreted sections of the Cooks River to slow the water flow, and detention basins built to enable the reuse of the water.
From fecal coliform bacteria to visible rubbish like plastic bags,bottles and drink cans, pollution is killing the Cooks River, leaving it to suffocate in one long and painful death rasp.
“What’s pretty scary though” says Mr Blaschke, is that an antiquated system of 400 overflow points along
the Georges River and 200 along the Cooks River continue to release untreated or partly treated sewage into the water system.
“Whichever party it is that jumps onto the bandwagon of water quality will certainly reap the rewards because the public want to see a healthy river.”

Source:  Jeanette Stephen Bankstown Canterbury Torch Wednesday 21 February 2007