|
Please renew your
membership as soon as
possible. Our
organisation can only be
effective if we have
members that support us
in protecting our
valuable environment. |
|
 |
|
FORTHCOMING EVENTS |
|
|
|
Evening Talk |
|
Thursday 19 August 2010 at the
Rietvlei Education Centre at 7.30
for 8.00pm. |
|
“Illustrated Talk on Visit to
Falklands, South Georgia and
Antarctic Peninsula” |
|
Helm van Zijl of the Cape Bird Club
visited the south west Atlantic at
the end of last year and will show
us some fantastic pictures of his
visit. |
|
|
|
Afternoon Walk |
|
Sunday 5 September 2010 we are going
to take a walk up the Diep River. We
will meet at 3pm at the Caltex
Garage at the corner of Parklands
Main Road and Gie Road. We hope to
see some lovely Spring flowers and
high levels of water in the river. |
|
|
|
PLEASE CONTACT Pauline on 083 255
2537 if you require further info on
the above events. |
|
|
|
|
|
DIEP RIVER ESTUARY MANAGEMENT
PLAN |
|
Implementation of the Diep River
Estuary Management Plan is
proceeding slowly, to some it
might appear that there is no
progress. However, there has
been some progress and quite a
lot of information for further
use in the plan has been
gathered. There will be a
report-back meeting to
stakeholders in September, at
that time progress with
implementation of the various
programmes will be reviewed. |
|
We have had some requests for
copies of the Estuary Management
Plan. Unfortunately we do not
have printed copies of the plan;
but it is available in
electronic format and can be
downloaded from this website –
click here. |
|
|
|
DIEP RIVER / FYNBOS CORRIDOR PROJECT |
|
It is with regret that we
announce that Henk Louw, the
site conservation officer for
the Diep River Corridor funded
by the Friends of Rietvlei,
resigned at the end of June to
take up a permanent post in the
City’s Biodiversity Branch. As
the position in the Diep River
was only temporary, we are happy
for Henk that he has managed to
get a permanent post – we wish
him well and also thank him for
the contribution he made to the
management of the Diep River
corridor since November last
year. |
|
With Henk’s early departure,
there is still funds left for
the payment of salaries for the
Diep River corridor, so we are
now funding two General Workers
to assist the permanent site
conservation officer,
Christopher Singo. Both started
in mid July and will work till
end of January 2011. |
|
|
|
Potsdam Bus Depot. |
|
In a previous newsletter we mentioned that we had
registered as an interested and affected party for
the development of the bus depot for the IRT system
at the northern end of Potsdam Rd. This depot is
being developed in The Stables Industrial Park next
to the Diep River north of the railway bridge; and
large underground diesel tanks will be installed on
site. |
|
The draft scoping report was circulated and we
responded to that; our concerns were that an
artificial wetland serving as a stormwater retention
pond adjacent to the bus depot site may not have the
capacity to handle run-off from the depot site
should there be a diesel spill. The final scoping
report addressed our concerns, and after further
discussions with the consultants we were assured
that more details about the capacity of the wetland
will be included in the draft Environmental Impact
Report. We must add that all run-off from the areas
where diesel is received and from where the buses
are refuelled, will first run into water-diesel
separators before entering either the stormwater
system or the sewage system. |
|
|
|
Rainfall at Rietvlei |
|
It is quite a while since we have provided our
readers with up to date rainfall figures for
Rietvlei; so here are recent figures presented at a
Rietvlei Management Working Group meeting. So far
this year we have had less rain through to the end
of June compared to last year (171mm vs. 222.5mm for
the first six months of 2009). Also note the
exceptionally high rainfall measured in November
2009 compared to previous years – this resulted in
the central pans being inundated throughout most of
the summer, thus preventing the recurring dust
problem of previous years. |
Updated:
15/07/2010 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
| January |
|
16.9 |
57.9 |
3.5 |
8.0 |
16.0 |
1.0 |
1.5 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
1.0 |
| February |
|
2.0 |
10.0 |
6.0 |
0.9 |
4.0 |
7.0 |
19.5 |
6.0 |
9.0 |
5.0 |
| March |
|
0.0 |
10.1 |
32.2 |
7.0 |
14.5 |
4.0 |
15.0 |
4.0 |
0.0 |
1.0 |
| April |
5.0 |
18.9 |
29.9 |
10.9 |
79.5 |
69.5 |
27.2 |
45.5 |
10.0 |
32.5 |
9.0 |
| May |
26.1 |
48.7 |
38.6 |
22.2 |
2.3 |
54.1 |
104.0 |
42.5 |
44.0 |
94.0 |
84.0 |
| June |
51.6 |
36.4 |
62.8 |
13.1 |
66.8 |
83.3 |
25.5 |
127.7 |
67.0 |
83.0 |
71.0 |
| July |
46.1 |
175.7 |
69.5 |
27.3 |
65.8 |
38.0 |
64.2 |
96.0 |
116.0 |
57.0 |
|
| August |
24.3 |
108.7 |
66.9 |
81.1 |
45.5 |
74.0 |
45.0 |
86.0 |
68.5 |
79.0 |
|
| September |
19.3 |
61.5 |
19.5 |
53.8 |
17.8 |
30.0 |
12.0 |
34.0 |
4.0 |
47.0 |
|
| October |
5.3 |
31.2 |
33.7 |
26.3 |
119.0 |
9.8 |
20.5 |
22.0 |
2.0 |
29.0 |
|
| November |
8.8 |
22.5 |
13.2 |
2.8 |
3.0 |
9.8 |
31.0 |
30.0 |
46.0 |
62.5 |
|
| December |
2.5 |
10.5 |
20.1 |
15.5 |
6.5 |
0.0 |
4.5 |
22.0 |
19.0 |
7.0 |
|
| Total |
219.0 |
532.1 |
432.2 |
303.7 |
421.9 |
402.9 |
341.4 |
541.7 |
390.5 |
504.0 |
171.0 |
|
|
|
|
COMMUNITY SERVICE: |
|
We received this email from a young man in our
community: |
“This is Ulrich Vogeli from 1st Blaauwberg Sea Scout
Troop. I am contacting you about having a community
service project at Rietvlei.
If possible I would
like to have it on the 17th and 18th of July (the
Saturday and Sunday.)
The requirements dictate
that the project should be at least 10 working
hours, and preferably outside work. If possible I
would like to complete the bulk of the work on the
Saturday, but that is just a preference not a
necessity.” |
Our Chairman Nelis Visagie, together with some input
from Rifqah Johnson, education intern at Rietvlei,
organized and supervised the enthusiastic group of
scouts as they set about doing some maintenance to
our Education Centre. The roof is rusting in places
so repairs were necessary.
THANKS TO ULRICH AND HIS
PATROL. |
|
|
|
Expansion and Upgrading of Wastewater Treatment
Infrastructure in the Blaauwberg Area. |
|
On 3 August the Provincial Department of
Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
approved the expansion of Potsdam WWTW from a
capacity of the present 47Ml/day to 100Ml/day.
Upgrading of waste water treatment infrastructure in
the Blaauwberg Area to deliver sewage to Potsdam
WWTW was also approved. |
|
This decision is not good news for Rietvlei and the
Diep River Estuary, and the Friends are considering
lodging an appeal against the Record of Decision.
Such an appeal must be lodged by 3rd September, and
we will be discussing our options with other
stake-holders soon. |
|
|
|
CREW Project at BCA |
|
CREW (Custodians of Rare and
Endangered Wildflowers) is a
programme that involves
volunteers from the public in
the monitoring and conservation
of South Africa's threatened
plants. CREW aims to capacitate
a network of volunteers from a
range of socio-economic
backgrounds to monitor and
conserve South Africa's
threatened plant species. The
programme links volunteers with
their local conservation
agencies and particularly with
local land stewardship
initiatives to ensure the
conservation of key sites for
threatened plant species. |
|
The CREW team is keen to start
the programme within the
Blaauwberg Conservation Area and
three dates have been set up for
field trips. The initial field
trip will involve a short
introduction to basic botany
followed by a field trip close
to the Eerste Steen cabin.
People interested in
participating in these field
trips must note that the meeting
time is 9am at the log cabin at
Eerste Steen (just past Big Bay
on Otto Du Plessis Drive). |
Saturday 21st August
Saturday 18th September
Saturday 16th October |
|
For more information please feel
free to contact Cindy on 084 920
1160. |
|
|
| Thanks go to Chevron Refinery for
sponsoring envelopes for the posted newsletter. |
