Toxic Blue-Green Algae Blooms, Fish Kills Expected Throughout Murray-Darling System As Levels Fall

[hatrack]

The drought is so dire that fish are expected to die and toxic algal blooms to fester in the ailing Murray-Darling Basin. In its quarterly drought update, issued on Wednesday, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority warns the drought is getting worse.

January set all the wrong kinds of records - some areas got no rainfall, and the recent heatwave in southern Australia wreaked havoc. This year is on track to be one of the worst in more than a century of records.

Storages are one third of what they should be in January, and relief is not in sight. No decent rains are on the radar for the next three months. The basin's southern rivers were so low, so hot and moving so slowly that blue-green algal blooms were likely, the authority's chief executive Rob Freeman said. Southern NSW, Victoria and South Australia were most at risk.

"Blue-green algal blooms do cause problems for human health," he told reporters in Canberra. While bigger cities treated their water, small towns and farmers could be in trouble. "Those extracting water directly from the river need to be far more cautious," Mr Freeman warned.

EDIT

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/dead-fish-algae-to-hit-murraydarling-20090204-7xja.html