Tullah and surrounds trying to make the best of oil spill shutdown of Lake Rosebery

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A popular lake on Tasmania's west coast will remain closed for at least another week as authorities work to contain an oil spill. The lake's closure has disappointed tourists and forced Tullah locals to conserve water.

Transcript

00:00A slick black line along the shore, and marking the stems of freshwater reeds, is evidence

00:09of up to 5,000 litres of oil that leaked into Lake Rosebury near Tulla earlier this month.

00:17Tasmania's Environment Protection Authority says the oil spilled from a nearby tank, partially

00:23buried on private land, when it was inundated by wet weather.

00:27We suspect upwards, or around 30 kilometres of shoreline has been potentially impacted.

00:34We've confirmed roughly about 18 kilometres of that shoreline thus far in our investigations.

00:40Crews have been working to contain the oil. Now they're focused on removal.

00:45Vegetation removal along the old shoreline is one idea that is being explored. There

00:52may also be a need to do some low-level water flushing of the shoreline as well.

00:59Tanks of drinking water are being brought into Tulla for locals, who are being asked

01:03to conserve water. Summer is the West Coast's peak tourism season.

01:09The lake is used for recreational fishing and swimming, but the local restaurant and

01:13accommodation provider says visitor numbers have remained steady.

01:18Some of the tourists aren't happy. They've come here because they want to have the experience

01:23with the lake and do some stuff on the lake, and when they come here and actually find

01:29out they can't, they're a little bit disappointed. It's been sad news for these Scottish cyclists

01:35touring around Tasmania. Oh, it's devastating because we were hoping

01:39for a dip in the lake to ease the legs off and just relax and enjoy it, so it is disappointing

01:46unfortunately. We're here on holiday, so we're only affected

01:51marginally. I hope that nobody else is worse affected than we are.

01:56A week-long closure has already blown out, with the lake remaining off-limits until at

02:01least midnight of January 31st. It's not yet known what the long-term impacts will be.

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