A floating wetland will be added to Yerrabi Pond in Gungahlin in a fresh bid to prevent blue-green algae blooms in the body of water.
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The 1000 square metre floating wetland was funded as part of a $1.6 million capital works budget for the ACT government's healthy waterways program.
The funding will also cover the replacement of grass swales at Kambah Playing Fields, where several bioretention swales will be installed in their place.
Water Minister Shane Rattenbury said Gungahlin residents had shown great interest in improving the water quality of Yerrabi Pond.
An severe outbreak of toxic blue-green algae in Yerrabi Pond forced the closure of the pond to swimmers for a period in 2016.
A floating wetland was installed in Lake Tuggeranong in March, the first large-scale deployment of the blue-green algae limiting technique.
The Lake Tuggeranong floating wetland was installed as part of a two-year trial, after which time it will either remain in place or be moved to another waterbody in the ACT.
"It is hoped that the wetland will compete for nutrients and light with blue-green algae, preventing them from blooming in the bay and then spreading to the lake," Mr Rattenbury said.
ACT Healthy Waterways program manager Ralph Ogden told The Canberra Times in March there was no single solution to algal blooms, but floating wetlands were part of the response.
MORE NEWS:
The ACT government has been compelled to fund extensive and expensive programs in an effort to rid Canberra's lakes and ponds of blue-green algae.
The Healthy Waterways project began in 2014 as a $93.5 million five-year program, which the ACT government has since extended.
The ACT government more than two years ago warned that it could take a decade to kill off blue-green algae in Canberra.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
