I've done rough calculations - it is about 250km from Edith River bridge to Browns Creek on the Daly.

At 2 to 3km/h it will take about 80 to 100 hours to get there, or four or five days.

The crash was on December 27 so the toxic stuff might be near Browns now. I would imagine the floating bottles of lost supermarket goods will be visible soon at the Daly Crossing, although most would be caught along the bank in transit.

Feel free to adjust my calculations.

Having looked at the map I think the copper concentrate will be mostly dumped as sediment along the 50km of Edith River to the junction of the Daly River near Claravale, and along the upper Daly. This will almost certainly affect some cherabin and invertebrate stocks in the upper river.

Hopefully the lower Daly will be unaffected.

Claravale Crossing is the likely observation point for any dead fish or rubbish - anyone going down that way? Road may be closed.

If no dead fish show at Claravale, then it might be all clear.

Just guessing at this of course, the longer term contamination of fish is a separate issue ...

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Matt, just putting some perspective on the hype...Daly flows 6730 billion Litres/yr into sea...catchment area 525000 sq km..estimated flow in flood 1200l/sec..Copper concentrate actually only has 10/15% copper present in sulphide form. This is extracted by smelting. the resultant gas is sulphur dioxide and is recovered to produce sulphuric acid. Copper sulphate is a byproduct of the extraction process, and not, as everyone seems to think, present in raw form in the concentrate. Copper has been found to be highly antibacterial and is at the fore-front in destroying type A flu' virus and asian bird flu virus. Hospitals with copper door/trolley and high public use items are typicaly staph free, and copper is widely used to combat E coli. To put it bluntly, given the sheer volume of water available at the time, the dilution rate of the spill, and the turbulence of the flow, the liklihood of any serious threat is minimal at best. Copper is present in nature in practically all earths, soils, and sediments, and frankly, is of more benefit to the environment than most want to believe, hence the hype. You'd get more 'radiation' from your TV than the whole train load of concentrate, but, it gives the numnut greens something to play with other than their dicks..Perhaps a fraction of unbiased research into the whole subject, rather than 'selective' quotes would go a long way toward dispelling the litany of cr.p being foisted on the ever gullible public. Maybe I'm just a dumb roadtrain operator, but I considered what happened, serious enough to warrant a good hard look at the whole mess. Water sampling at the river mouth over the coming weeks will tell the real story.Depending on the dilution rate of the Mt Todd spill, ie, the initial acidity v the volume of flood water, we may escape the predictions of doom and gloom being bandied around at present. It's happened,all the speculation in the world won't change a damned thing. Worrying over what may, or may not happen, is a wasted emotion. Better off using the whole incident to drive a concerted effort to ensure ther is no 'encore' at the next flood.

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I too dont think that it is the end of the world for that river. It flows way to much water and the fact that it happened in a peak flood event makes it less of a drama. If this event happened in a low water flow period then it would be a drama. With any luck even more rain will come and we wont remember what the drama is. As was mentioned above , I do beleive that this could be a problem in low water flow times. lets hope that all is done that needs to be to prevent any thing like this happen again. something to focus on.

I suspect it will not be a big issue for the Daly given the water volume, but it might be for the Edith.

I doubt big fish will die in the Daly, but things could happen to cherabin larvae etc that will have significant effects down the track - perhaps bigger effects than nomads with cherabin pots.

What is certain is that, rightly or wrongly, the Daly no longer has a pristine reputation. Maybe we need Barry Coulter back to eat a fillet of fresh Daly barra next year and show everyone it's OK.

As for the "hype", this matter needs to be treated seriously by the media and not swept under the carpet, or we are just setting ourselves up for it to happen again - don't you get the feeling the NT has been looking a little grubby in the heavy industry and sewage departments? Full marks to the government for its plans to relocate the Larrakeyah sewage outfall, of course ...

With more heavy industry on the way to Darwin, you would want the media and government to be right on the job.

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Research has set the dilution rate for the Mt Todd spill at 1part mine water to 20000 parts Edith river water (0.005%) This will protect 95% of species in the catchment. As this was established based on normal flow rates, I'm hoping the added volume of the flood waters will bring the toxicity levels well below the parameters thereby preventing any damage to the ecology of the Edith, and eventually the Daly.

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Shouldn't worry all those that catch and release

I spray copper (Oxy Chloride) all the time on the mangoes can't see that much copper in that river system doing jack sh....t. Will clean out things close by for a while but by the end of the wet all will be good.

Just the ravings of disilusioned fisherman who couldn't be bothered with the daly these days with all the traffic.

Who cares

O! good news just on the TV, new covered carriages will arrive next week to carry these goods.

Hope my groceries don't go up to cover the cost of the new freight carriages and to cover the cost of the supermarket goods that went into the drink O'well least I will not need to buy a plastic bag that will last 10 times longer in the environment than the old ones to carry my shopping home.

Don't forget it just gets better? your pi...s goes up next week. Another Gov initiative that will save the world.

But then again being a Territorian we should be used to taking it up the ding--ger.

Why! O! why? do we have to follow suit of other states aren't we our own people?

I wouldn't call the Daly pristine , what with all the development ,boat ramps , people living there abandoned neem tree plantations etc.
Im more worried about the neem tree invasion than anything else ,If the Fed Govt doesnt get off its butt quickly and declare it a noxious weed ,it will be way too late.
The Katherine river is already infested and now it's a loosing battle .
Kev.

Copper sulphate is highly toxic to fish and although it is highly water soluble-that is, it dissolves very easily in water-the copper ions are strongly adsorbed or precipitated to soil particles. That being the case the copper will end up bound to the clay particles where they settle, I'd be thinking that would be the river mouth where the flow slows.

If that's the case how long will it be moved around the system by tidal action or will it be quickly buried by ongoing deposites of sedimant?

If it was the Ord I'd be worried and would want some more information pretty quick smart.

If it "had" to happen, best it was in December, rather than at the end of April etc with no more flows coming down to flush it.

totally agree grumpy l have lived in the NT for 30 yrs and they seem commited to changing it into a twin of Adelaide or sydney makes me puke

Just out of intrests sake, how many tonnes of this toxic material (or other) would make us think it would cause a problem?
When I lived in NSW, Councils put it into the water system to kill off 'bugs' in the water BUT before they do, they have to give notice to the residents that they are about to do it.
The reason is that this stuff in low doses kills fish etc in aquariums.

Wheres the outrage? Its just a little copper and uranium- no worries- this is should be a warning, things are not going to get better! people are kicking up more of a fuss about some rubbish left near a culvert! Its only luck that the circumstances are in the rivers favour, ie- it was during the start of the wet not the end and it was not direcly in a big river. Am I over reacting -should I just relax and brush it off? Public opinion is a powerful thing and the goverment should hear it. Frustrating!

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