Biodiversity at Gillooly’s Dam was recently harmed when an unknown suspect dumped oil into the dam.
This resulted in an investigation by the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE).
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Ward 20 Clr Jill Humphreys did a site visit in November at Gillooly’s Farm, after being notified about the dead fish in the dam.
Upon arrival, Humphreys noticed a strong smell of oil coming from the water.
“I asked around what could’ve been the reason, and my inquiry revealed that a person had been spotted by the Gillooly’s Farm security dumping oil into the stream,” said Humphreys.
She said it seemed as if one of the security members was completely unaware this was a gross infringement.
Humphreys contacted the CoE requesting that the security staff be briefed on how to protect the farm from such incidents.
“I also requested an urgent bio-remediation of the dam as there is still oil in it, and a clean-up due to the recent rains washing a lot of debris into the dam,” said Humphreys.
“As soon as the culprit is identified, appropriate action will be taken by Legislative Compliance together with provincial and national government,” spokesperson for Ekurhuleni metro, Themba Gadebe, said.
He said the culprit will be issued with a directive to rehabilitate the affected area.
On the security at the farm, Gadebe said the city has not given authority to security officers to allow any dumping into the dam, and was investigating why this had been allowed.
To ensure this does not occur again, Gadebe said the security personnel have been given an instruction not to allow any dumping of any sort to happen in the dam now and in the future.
He said appropriate action would be taken against the security company.
“Bio-remediation will be done as soon as the water quality results are available. This will indicate which parameters are beyond acceptable limits, and how much bio-remediation is necessary,” said Gadebe.
He said the time frame of getting the oil out of the dam is dependent on the conditions of the dam, and that recent rains might have contributed to some dilution of the oil spill.
Gadebe said the removal of debris and litter from the dam commenced in mid-November.
“It is appreciated that the community makes the City of Ekurhuleni aware of environmental law infringements in their areas. This will assist the city to take swift and appropriate action,” said Gadebe.
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