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Coastal and Marine Pollution
Volume 1, Issue 1
Environment Australia, September 2000
In February 2000 I had the pleasure of launching the Urban Stormwater Initiative on the Georges River in Sydney.
More than 80 per cent of Australians live near the coast - most in our large cities.
Pollution from urban stormwater has a major impact on coastal waterways near these cities.
To improve stormwater quality, governments, industry and communities need to manage this resource as catchment partners. Shared responsibility is the foundation of integrated resource management.
This newsletter provides an ideal opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences on improving stormwater management practices.
Funding under the Commonwealth's Urban Stormwater Initiative will help establish many of these new approaches.
Senator Robert Hill
As part of World Environment Day celebrations on 5 June, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Robert Hill announced the first project under the $8.2 million Urban Stormwater Initiative.
A world class project in Adelaide will reduce pollution in the Barker Inlet, Port River Estuary and Gulf St Vincent. Part of the project involves using harvested stormwater to replace 1.5 billion litres of water that is being pumped from the Murray River to supply the GH Michell & Sons' Wool Scouring Plant at Parafield.
The launch of this major project in Adelaide highlighted the role of the city as the international centre for World Environment Day celebrations. Activities included the Prime Minister's Environment Awards and the United Nation's prestigious Roll of Honour for Environmental Achievement. A business breakfast followed by a street march of over 5,000 children dressed in costumes based on environmental themes rounded off an unforgettable day.
The Urban Stormwater Initiative (USI) is a Commonwealth Government program aimed at stimulating solutions for better management of urban stormwater in coastal cities.
The USI funds strategic projects that are both ecologically and economically significant. Projects involving partnerships between state and local governments, industry, applied research organisations and community groups are encouraged.
This newsletter aims to promote innovative projects funded under the Initiative. It encourages information sharing about new approaches to stormwater management.
For further details about the USI contact:
Garry Reynolds at the Department of the Environment and Heritage on telephone 02 6274 1490 or send an email to: garry.reynolds@deh.gov.au St Vincent.
A recent Senate Inquiry has identified Adelaide's' stormwater and wastewater discharge as major threats to the health of Gulf St Vincent. These pollution streams are equivalent in volume to the water Adelaide uses from the Murray River each year. Owing to increasing salinity, researchers predict that Adelaide residents will only be able to drink the Murray's water three out of every five days in 20 years time.
An Adelaide consortium led by G. H. Michell & Sons and the City of Salisbury is receiving over $1.8 million in Commonwealth funding to help turn a growing problem into a resource. The funding comes from the Commonwealth's Urban Stormwater Initiative and Clean Seas Program.
Michell's woolscour is one of the largest in the world. To produce its premium products it requires large volumes of good quality input water. As the biggest individual water user in Adelaide, Michell's is concerned about the deteriorating quality of the Murray.
On the output side, the woolscour's wastestream provides a challenge as it contains up to 20,000 tonnes of sludge and over 4,000 tonnes of salt each year. Currently, this wastewater is the largest single input to the Bolivar Wastewater Treatment Plant on Gulf St Vincent. After treatment, the water is either discharged into the Gulf or piped for reuse to the horticultural district of Virginia.
The project consortium, including Parafield Airport, is putting in place a new regional approach to managing the inputs and outputs of the woolscour. Sustainable methods to protect the Gulf and create new resources for the Adelaide region will be introduced using world's best practice stormwater and wastewater management.
Up to 1500 million litres per annum of input water from the Murray will be replaced by an aquifer storage and recovery scheme. Stormwater from the Salisbury area will be harvested then treated in a constructed wetland on the Parafield Airport - a world first. The water will be injected into aquifers for storage and recovered for reuse at the woolscour and with other industrial users in the Salisbury area.
On the output side, two megalitres per day of rinse water will be available for irrigation in urban developments, parks and gardens following polishing in another constructed wetland.
The consortium is also looking at an exciting prospect of mixing the woolscour sludge with large amounts of Adelaide's green waste to produce over 50,000 tonnes of compost each year. This compost could be used on the Adelaide region's expanding viticulture and horticulture to minimise water use.
For further information contact:
GH Michell & Sons: http://www.michell.com.au/ City of Salisbury: http://www.salisbury.sa.gov.au/
The Street Smart River Clean project is helping to improve stormwater management in Adelaide's industrial heartland.
The project is a partnership between the Torrens Catchment Water Management Board, the Cities of Prospect, Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield and the private sector.
Project officers have worked with firms to solve on-site stormwater pollution and other environmental management problems. The solutions are disseminated by the project officers to firms facing similar problems. By adopting cleaner production techniques, firms can improve their bottom line through being more efficient in the use of resources and the sale of recovered waste.
CHR Hansen, a food additive manufacturer at Windsor Gardens, has made major changes to its stormwater management. Grates have been installed across stormwater drains to catch debris. Sumps have also been installed around outdoor machinery to prevent seepage into stormwater drains. Water caught in the sumps is pumped into vats and treated.
For further information
Contact a Project Officer on 08 8405 6711 and by email on: jballant@portenf.sa.gov.au
Quotes: Face to face communication is often overlooked as an educational tool. The response from industry involved in the Street Smart River Clean Project indicates that this is the most effective method of environmental education because it can be tailored to suit individual needs.
Rooftop gardens are an increasingly popular way to manage environments dominated by non-porous surfaces. Aside from the aesthetic and recreational benefits, the gardens regulate stormwater flows and trap and filter pollutants.
Terry White, a consultant working for Melbourne City Council, is developing rooftop gardens on two buildings in Melbourne's central business district.
The project is also supported by Melbourne Water, RMIT University, Environs Australia and the Centre for Catchment Hydrology. Ross House, a five floor building in Flinders Lane, will have an indigenous garden developed on top of the existing corrugated iron roof. Rain will water the plants and runoff will be stored in tanks and pumped back into the building for toilet flushing.
For further information contact:
Terry White:twhite@netconnect.com.au or Gordon Harrison, City of Melbourne's Engineering Department,
telephone: 03 9658 9075.
Although local government manages most of the stormwater networks in Adelaide, there has been no mechanism to coordinate stormwater management across council boundaries.
Something is being done about this in Adelaide's Patawalonga catchment. Information about the network of drains and channels is being integrated into a standardised GIS system. With this system, pollutants can be traced to their source and tracked to the outflow point. Stormwater modelling, flood modelling and disaster management across the entire catchment can be undertaken using the system.
The integrated project is supported by the South Australian Environment Protection Agency, Planning SA, Transport SA, the SA Department of Environment and Heritage, and the Patawalonga Catchment Water Management Board.
For further information
See http://www.mappingandbeyond.com
Amidst Olympic euphoria it is easy to forget that Sydney's bid for a 'Green Games' commenced in 1993. A world class stormwater management system has always been part of the vision for the Homebush site.
The Water Reclamation and Management Scheme is central to the treatment of stormwater at the Olympic site. This Scheme minimises water demand from the mains supply and wastewater discharges into the sewerage system. It provides 800 million litres of reclaimed water (greywater) to the Homebush site annually for irrigation, toilet flushing, water features and washdown activities.
An old brick pit provides a reservoir for up to 300 million litres of stormwater runoff. Other stormwater is dealt with in a water harvesting system using artificial wetlands in the adjacent Millennium Parklands at Homebush Bay.
These capture and filter nutrients and sediment in the stormwater runoff. Traps placed in strategic positions upstream capture gross pollutants such as litter. The stormwater management of the Homebush Games site has been given the thumbs-up by all involved including Greenpeace and Green Games Watch 2000.
For further information see the official Olympic web site: http://www.environment.gov.au/greengames/index.html
A $12 million CSIRO study has identified stormwater as a major threat to the health of Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. Each year the equivalent of 500 truckloads of nitrogen is added to the Bay from stormwater discharges.
A consortium led by Melbourne Water is establishing 'natural' stormwater sinks in the City's rapidly growing south-east corridor. These will improve the quality of runoff before it reaches coastal waters. The process uses treatment chains centred on ten constructed wetlands. These wetlands are planted out with selected aquatic species that trap and filter nutrients and other pollutants.
The wetlands slow the flow of water into the Bay. This allows sediment to settle while sunlight and time combine with bacterial and algal processes do their work. Aside from improving water quality, there are other beneficial outcomes including enhanced biodiversity and new recreational opportunities.
The project is jointly funded by Melbourne Water and the Commonwealth's Clean Seas Program ($3.5 million) an initiative of the Natural Heritage Trust.
For further information
See Melbourne Water's web site: http://www.melbournewater.com.au
The City of Salisbury in Northern Adelaide has been a pioneer in the use of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) techniques to capture, treat and store stormwater.
Over the past 25 years wetland design has evolved from a focus on visual amenity to stormwater treatment and recycling using confined aquifers.
The City of Salisbury has constructed more than 25 wetlands covering 250 hectares. Some of these have been dedicated to ASR.
The investment by the Council in ASR has been shown to have financial payback periods as short as 5 years.
The City of Salisbury has championed the cause of water conservation through ASR and simultaneously achieved the goal of improving the quality of urban waterways.
As a major partner in the project funded by the Urban Stormwater Initiative at Parafield, the Council is driving the concept of integrated catchment management as the basis for a sustainable urban ecosystem in Northern Adelaide.
Marine and Water Division
Environment Australia
GPO Box 787
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Phone: 02 6274 2005
Fax: 02 6274 1006
Email: garry.reynolds@deh.gov.au
http://www.deh.gov.au/coasts/pollution/usi
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