Human Health Endangered by Australian Drought

Due to climate change; one of the now dried up lakes in Australia is gradually turning into Sulphuric Acid.

The Age is reporting that there are fears people living in towns around the lakes may suffer from acid dust, blowing off the bare lakes as rising acidity threatens to wipe out ecology in the lakes. The lake-bed soils turn into sulphuric acid when exposed to the air, and record low flows down the Murray are exposing the beds.

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Some of the drought-stricken small streams that flow into the lakes already have recorded acidity levels higher than battery acid. When exposed to oxygen in the air through disturbance or drainage these soils produce sulfuric acid and can lead to the release of heavy metals and other contaminants.

Without effective management, acid sulfate soils can pose risks to the environment (including water quality) and have potential impacts on human and animal health and agriculture.

The decline of the Murray River’s protected Lower Lakes has reached a turning point. Officials say they are no longer able to artificially refill the dried lakes with freshwater.

A new strategy is needed to prevent the more vulnerable of the two lakes from turning acidic.

Water has been artificially added from the larger Lake Alexandrina into Albert in recent months in a bid to cover the lake bed.

But the South Australian Water Minister has warned upstream states that the pumping can not continue; saying that due to drought, water levels can no longer be maintained in both lakes … Therefore, pumping of water to Lake Albert will cease and a major bioremediation program is being implemented.

Bioremediation would involve planting selected crops in the lake bed and spreading fine limestone particles across it.

“This is the first known attempt to bioremediate acid sulphate soil-affected areas on a scale of this enormous size,” Ms Maywald said.

But it is far from the first drastic step Australia has taken to deal with the effects of climate change. In fact Australian architects seem to be ahead of the rest of us in creating adaptive design to cope in the hellish new world we are creating.

Image via Australian flikr user gaznlin
News via the The Age

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