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Comment by somishere | Hacker News Reader

Yep totally agree with your statement. My point was that there isn't a lot of cotton being grown in GBR catchments, so it wouldn't be one of the main industries directly effecting water quality on the reef.

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But do you not see how the water issues are actually related? The catchments that do abut the GBR are not kept clean by regular water flow - meaning that when there is a major flood or storm, materials that would normally be absorbed by a green environment, are instead dumped - en masse during a flooding event - directly into our oceans. We've had a few major flooding events-worth of nutrient dumping in the last 20 years.

The cotton industry is buffering the problem - its not a direct cause - but it definitely contributes to the lack of local nutrient capture, which, when dumped, drastically effects our ocean water quality.

I think its important not to minimize the effect that altering Victoria/NSW's water table has on the waterway ecosystems.

This picture, straight from the horses mouth, shows you just how interdependent the waterways - and thus, the GBR - are:

https://cottonaustralia.com.au/assets/general/Landscapes-ima...

I'm sorry but I'm not sure I follow. Are you suggesting that the nutrients that get washed out via catchments in NSW end up on the GBR? I didn't realise this. Certainly water quality is a massive issue, and the current mess going on in the Murray-Darling is highly concerning in a general way. Also regards the nutrients, yes we have exactly the same issue with e.g. sugar, bananas, graziers up here.

The issue is that we've screwed with the water systems in the region so much, that when there is a flood event in areas that have had their natural water flows completely altered, nutrients that have built up in the system that would normally 'trickle-release' slowly are instead dumped en mass into our ocean. Don't forget that for 9 months of the year, the ocean water currents draw waters from the southern coast towards the north... reversing during summer (drought), but when the rainy season hits, and washes the stored nutrients out, the currents pull that artificially nutrient-rich waters directly onto the reef.

Its a mess of epic proportions, but unfortunately the cotton profits are too damned high.

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