Department of Natural Resources Resource Management Institute Water Resources Group

NATURAL RESOURCES

March, 1996

Report on

REGIONAL CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT SHORT COURSE

Volume 1 - Report

Report on

REGIONAL CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT SHORT COURSE

Conducted by the Australian Water and Wastewater Association and the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology at the University of Canberra 5-7th February 1996

Volume I - Report

by Anthony Horn

March, 1996

VOLUME 1

Table of Contents

2.0 COURSE ORGANISATION

3.0 SYNTHESIS OF LECTURES PRESENTED

4.0 FIELD EXCURSION - ASPECTS OF URBAN WATER NAGEMENT

5.0 CONCLUSIONS

11.0 INTRODUCTION

A short course on Regional Catchment Management was conducted by the Australian Water and Wastewater Association and the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Freshwater Ecology, at the University of Canberra during the 5-7 February 1996. This course was attended by Anthony Horn, Hydrologist, Water Resources Group, Resource Management Institute.

The following is a summary of the technical content of the course, a discussion of fbture directions of this area of research and management and the author's personal opinions of the structure, content, organisation and strengths and weaknesses of the course presented. Recommendations are also presented on the general value of the course and Department of Natural Resources personnel who would be most likely to benefit from attendance at what is an annual training program.

The course was attended by 20 participants with 9 from NSW, 5 from Qld, 2 from SA and one from each of Vic, WA, ACT and the NT. Of these, 7 were from state government departments, 4 from local councils, 3 from quasi government organisations and 6 from private consultants. No federal government employees attended..

Volume I1 of this document contains the appendices. An outline of the technical program appears in Appendix A. A list of registrants, their organisations, contact details and a brief note on areas of interest appears in Appendix B. The course lecture handouts, comprising some 280 pages, appear in Appendix C. A limited number of copies of Volume I1 are on circulation.

2.0 COURSE ORGANISATION

The entire course, except for a two hour field excursion (discussed later), was held in a single lecture theatre on site at the University of Canberra. The facilities provided were adequate for the course. Included in the registration ($1050) were two nights accommodation at a motel on campus. Nearly all participants availed themselves of this accommodation and this arrangement facilitated course participants learning from each others' work experiences.

An outline of the technical program appears in Appendix B. The program consisted of short (30 minute) duration lectures with little time allocated for questioning the speaker (because of time constraints, generally only one or two questions were permitted, there was some pressure to curtail questioning and keep the program moving). Two half hour discussion periods were scheduled during the three day period, these were conducted as an interactive question and comment arrangement. The level of participation during the two discussion periods fiom the audience was minimal.

The format of the course only allowed a quick overview of many aspects of catchment management to be presented, this unfortunately precluded development of ideas and application of knowledge to specific problems. Particularly, the format did not allow for the working through of real life problems that may be of professional or personnel interest to the participants. While many worthwhile topics were covered the short exposure to each topic may have precluded effective long term learning, particularly as there was a lack of development of ideas. I find it more difficult to remember and ultimately apply knowledge if I am lectured and 'learning' in a passive fashion.

Time was made available during the morning and afternoon tea breaks for discussion with some of the presenters and similarly, during the course lunches and dinners (included in the registration fee). During these meal breaks it was difficult to develop ideas and achieve in-depth discussions: conversations were limited to quick overviews and impressions of the state of the science and associated research environment. Some of these conversations gave a good insight into these points and were of great value.

3.0 SYNTHESIS OF LECTURES PRESENTED

The following is a brief rundown on the presentations made and is taken principally fiom handwritten notes made during the course. At times my handwriting appeared somewhat illegible and some misinterpretations, by myself, may have occurred. Additionally, I do not agree with all of the statements presented. Most of the presenters provided a handout of their lectures, these handouts were of variable quality but usually were quite comprehensive. Copies of these handouts appear in Appendix C.

Course Introduction

The course was opened by Professor Peter Cullen of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology who raised the problem of transfemng the results of research into practice. Points were raised on establishing a link between knowledge collectors and users and the need of CRC's, in particular, to ensure cooperation between partners (users and researchers) and to develop a systems approach.

Industry in Transition: COAG Reforms

Dr John Langford (Chair of the CRC) presented an overview of organisational trends in the water industry. He considered there is currently a major revolution occumng in government administrative structures in Australia.

The speaker made some interesting points and, as he presented no handout, it is worth detailing some of his ideas. He raised questions of ecological damage with hrther water harvesting and the damage of returning waste water. Issues relating to COAG's (Confederation of Australian Governments) agenda were outlined. These included; industry structure, water pricing, competitive

neutrality, anticompetitive behaviour (issues of access and water trading), and implementation of environmental values:

Institutional Structure and Catchment Management

In the early 1970's the English water management industry reformed and created catchment based water management authorities. This system was regarded as the best approach at that time.

Australia now has virtually every type of water industry administrative structure. The major driving force appears to be to obtain private involvement. There is a drive towards separation of the water components ie. floodplain, wholesale, retail water supply etc. Additionally, the urban water market is being internationalised eg. an English company is involved in the supply of Adelaide's water. In the previous structures emphasis was on strong development of intellectual skills in natural resource management. In the new operating agencies these skills are likely to be progressively reduced.

Pricing

COAG intends to reduce subsidies. Previously there has been little commercial discipline in building irrigation schemes and in determining water allocations. It is now considered that there are too many imgation schemes and we have not adequately looked at issues such as siltation.

The speaker estimates that in northern Vic. a charge of $60 per ML is needed to recover all costs of supplying water, (including capital costs). However, the Victorians are prepared to write off the original capital costs of the infrastructure. Considering this they have determined a charge of $25 per ML would allow sufficient hnds to maintain and renew the infrastructure systems.. Originally the charge for water was $10 per ML in Victoria and this has been raised (to be more in line with actual costs) to $20 per ML. Interestingly, at $20 per ML the water consumption still continues to rise. Though there is now more of an incentive for efficient use of water with, for example, more intensive cropping.

The replacement figure of $25 per ML is reducing as the Victorians are becoming more efficient and are renewing their asset base selectively. There is however, a high level of water pricing regulation in Victoria - Premier Kennet (Vic) has put price caps on water charges.

In Australia, urban water consumption experienced a high growth rate into the early 1980'9, this growth has now leveled off, principally due to more appropriate (higher) charges (no consideration of the recent drought was made in this statement). Urban water makes a return on capital of between 2 - 6%, if water providers were operating in a fully commercial environment overall water charges would need to be 2 - 3 times what they are at present.

New freshwater resources are usually cheaper than recycling, but there is an environmental cost in establishing and in developing new water resources such as dams.

Competitive Neutralitv

SerniIGovernment authorities obtain goods including water at less than cost by not being required to pay sales or payroll tax and other charges. These authorities don't use "renewal" accounting which may need to be implemented, (but to use renewal accounting a good estimate of capital consumption is needed).The speaker considered the tax office may have some reservations about allowing full depreciation of large (and originally public funded) dams.

Anticompetitive Behaviour

There is the possibility of a Water Trading Bureau being established in Vic. to regulate (and not over regulate), water trading and the need to fully allow for the costs of environmental flows.

Rights of Access

Fair, (non discriminatory) access to the water resource cannot be denied or predator pricing used in order to restrict access to water. An example was given where a private company was previously denied access to a sewer from which it wanted to treat the water available and irrigate a racecourse. Private authorities may in the future be able to supply, treat and discharge water for private land developments.

Further Issues

The point was raised as to who should own the environmental allocations (as this is a public asset - ownership must be with some form of public body) there is a need for someone who is accountable to manage the allocations. In the Barmah Forest, project adjacent to the Murray River, it appears that a trust, which is legally accountable entity, may be set up to manage the water side of the operation.

What is Strateg Planning?

Mr Ian Lmverence (CRC) discussed issues such as "biophysical systems overlaid by the sociopolitical context" and made some reference to the National Water Quality Management Guidelines. A comprehensive handout of this presentation appears in Appendix C.

Resource Assessment: Looking at Catchments

Mr Neil Jones (CRC - retired), tried to get the audience thinking about "what does the catchment say", to consider the landscape as a 'memory' surface and consider what catchment memories are reflected in water quality. The

presentation was mainly anecdotal and was effective in raising questions about our cognitive assessment processes.

Resource Assessment: Analysing Stream Flows

Dr Martin Toms (CRC) discussed some of the broader points of streamflow analysis. He raised the following questions; why do we measure streamflow, what are the sampling objectives, what type of analysis is needed. He discussed the large variability of streamflow regimes in Australia and the need for a long dataset to allow for this variability. He considered there is a strong need to look closely at the sampling frequency of any monitoring program and cited several projects where oversampling has occurred.

Resource Assessment: Ever Health

Dr Richard Nornos (CRC) presented an interesting rundown of factors affecting the stream ecology. He indicated that in assessing river health there is a need to link aquatic ecosystems with their related catchments. Points were made by the speaker indicating that; the riparian zone is very sensitive and has a great influence on aquatic ecosystems, knowledge about rehabilitation of riparian zones is v e q limited and the decomposition cycle is not well understood.

A number of broad reasons for conserving aquatic ecosystems were presented including:

Scientific - water quality, efficiency of catchments Educational - training Recreational - aesthetic uses, contact uses (eg boating, swimming) Cultural - historical, religious, etc.

Assessing Aquatic Communities

Most of the initial work in this area developed from the community interest in fish (fishing). Aquatic invertebrates are now considered to be important in their own right. Additionally, invertebrate communities are closely related to water quality and the new ANZECC guidelines will reflect this association. Some aquatic invertebrate species are indicative of good water. As an example, a 1 - 1.5 cm long Penny Beetle has had 1 - 2 years of almost continuous near saturated 0 2 conditions to grow to such a size.

Generally, the volume of animals in a river system is enormous. The primary energy source for organisms in flowing waters is from carbon originally sourced from the catchment. The point was put forward that one third of the organic matter in the catchment should be able to be consumed by animals in the waterways in a healthy aquatic ecosystem.

Comment was made on the degree of diversity of habitat types present in a catchment and the point that each aquatic habitat type has a different aquatic community.

Resource Assessment: Water Quality

Dr Bill Maher (CRC) outlined some interesting observations on water quality guidelines and their appropriateness. He also outlined the following general problems in using guidelines-

are occasionally considered as "magic numbers", no priorities are indicated, and we cannot monitor everything, no guidance on what to monitor or when no account is made for differing degrees of persistence, degradation or partitioning of analytes "magic numbers" don't allow for variability eg. of seasonal concentrations no connection of land water use practices to impacts on water quality is provided in the guidelines ecosystems are diverse, blanket guidelines may not be appropriate guidelines need to be used with knowledge of the catchment don't cany the same burden of responsibility of a standard but there is still some onus of compliance

Resource Assessment: Floodplain and Stream Ecology

Mr Richard N O ~ S (CRC) presented one of the most interesting papers of the course with this lecture. Some of his key thoughts are summarised:

The speaker considered that in the next couple of years there will be a major shift to biological monitoring for water quality. Effective biological monitoring requires comparison with appropriate reference sites. Upstream sites cannot be used for comparison as statistically, such sites are not independent. Discussion of the use of aquatic animals to assess water quality followed along the following lines.

Advantages

- large range of types of animals available with differing sensitivities to water quality

- biological samples are easily collected by inexpensive methods - sampling commonly yields a wide variety and large numbers - good

for statistical analysis - once collected a biological sample provides a permanent record (if

properly recorded) - biological samples reflect water quality for days, weeks, up to a year

before sampling

Disadvantages

- biological samples lack the standardisation found in chemical and physical methods of measurement

- biological samples are perceived as being expensive - these samples provide data that are difficult to interpret unless

simplified - taxonomy of many animals is difficult, or poorly known - biological samples can help identify if there is an impact but not

necessarily what is causing it

Comparisons

- biological data are evaluated by making comparisons, generally among sites that are expected to be similar, in the absence of impacts caused by impaired water quality or habitat

Assumptions

- that sites with similar physical and chemical attributes are expected to have similar aquatic communities

- the environmental conditions at the reference sites represent the best range of minimally impaired environmental conditions

Representative

- reference sites must be representative of the water bodies under investigation, that is, they must exhibit conditions similar to those expected in the region in which test sites might be located

Reference Condition Concept

Groups of minimally disturbed sites, representing categories of environmental and biological characteristics can be used to determine relative river health. This concept was well presented and written up in the associated handout and may indicate a major direction in assessing river health. Dr Noms considers there has been a very strong trend over the last few months to do river health assessments this way and considers that soon questions will be asked why such assessments are not being done using such a methodology.

The reference site concept can probably be transferred to chemical and physical data and this has been done, in a sense, for the 1500 sites throughout Australia in the national river health assessment program. Apparently, according to the speaker, there is not so much of a problem with selecting upland stream sites as with lowland rivers (this may be because most lowland river sections are already heavily impacted).

Best Management Practices and Benchmarking

Dr Brett Phillips (Willing and Partners) presented a rundown on benchmarking of integrated catchment management plans. He indicated that meeting some predetermined level of pollutant export is not consistent with ecologically sustainable development and that there is a great need to reduce pollutant exports. An example of the effects of changes in land use on the Pumicestone Passage (a project undertaken for the Department of Environment and Heritage) and management options for this area were given.

Case Study: Murray Darling Basin ( B) Algal Management Strategy

Mr Martin Shafron (Murray Darling Basin Commisssion (MDBC)) presented a talk about the development procedure for the MDB algal management strategy. Little was said about what the strategy actually was which I consider would have been much more usefbl. He indicated that the Murray Darling Basin Commission is to be involved in any proposal that may affect water quality in the basin and conceded that this may be seen as another level of bureaucracy.

Computer Aids to Planning and Design

Dr Brett Phillips (Willing and Partners) gave a quick rundown of the applicability, strengths and weaknesses of some of the major hydrological (including water quality), and soil erosion modelling packages.

Resource Assessment: Sustainability

Professor Peter Cullen (CRC) presented an interesting overview on the question of ecological sustainability. He considers that the terms economic and ecological sustainability are commonly used but the general community has little understanding of what these terms actually mean. He considers that these terms are as yet, poorly defined, but acknowledged that some progress has been made in their better description.

It was argued the catchment is the natural unit for evaluating ecologically sustainable development. There is a need to explore the boundary of the system and look at all sources and sinks within the catchment.

Further comments made by Professor Cullen are presented as notes under the headings:

Drivers of Ecosystem Chan~e

- removal of inundation, through dams etc. - causes a loss of habitat, reduces biodiversity, alters the food chain, and creates major physical barriers to movement of biota eg. large dams, (large dams with

bottom offtakes can effect water temperatures up to 300 km downstream).

- changes of flow patterns and the relationship to various time scales were discussed

- change of total loads of nutrients, sediments, organic matter, toxicants in the water column

- resilience of ecosystems - it is possible to get a change of state eg macrophyte dominated ecosystem (large aquatic plants) to an algae dominated ecosystem, this process can take up to 15 yrs or more to reverse.

Choosing the limits of acceptable change

- identify all points and nonpoint loadings, use an appropriate time base for wet normal and dry years (averages are meaningless)

- identify sinks and loss functions, rates of loss, rates of regeneration - identify likely nutrient concentrations in receiving waters - estimate likely algal response - function of nutrients, flow, light, temp

Some guiding principles of sustainabilitv

- reduce, recycle, reuse - ecosystems are oscillating systems, this creates problems in

measuring these systems as they are continuously changing - there is a need to maintain ecological processes, define subsets for

research and management (difficult), where certain processes are critical eg. connection of river with floodplain

- there is a need to base remedial and preventative actions on knowledge (this has not always happened in the past)

- there is a need to eliminate toxic discharges, need to treat and manage industrial toxins on site

- there is a need to maintain biological diversity and a reserve system (should have such a reserve system everywhere not just in national parks)

- there is a need for a burden of proof on those wanting to discharge (state agencies have been driven by government policies of selling water and granting of irrigation licenses)

- information should be available to all, with corporatisation of government bodies, users now have to pay cash for data (this reduces the availability of the information)

The potential to turn drainage lines, that contain farm dams, into useful ecosystems was discussed. Macrophytes in farm dams can serve as a habitat for birds (and ferals), as a drought fodder and can help in the uptake of nutrients. However, overgrazing can ruin the macrophyte population.

Establishing Catchment Values and Management Objectives

Mr Ian Lawrence (CRC) in this talk outlined some of the components that need to be considered in assessment of catchment resources. Various objectives reflecting local concerns and broader community objectives were also outlined. Some of the problems and issues that should be considered in such an assessment are worth briefly noting:

demands for land and water uses land use change and associated changes of water flow and quality modification of stream flow associated with water abstraction discharge of wastewater to streams and groundwater competing and conflicting demands for finite resources competing demands for scarce financial resources inequitable distribution of costs and benefits across community groups loss of significant ecosystems national and international obligations health land use conflict; urban, farming etc.

Achieving all the sometimes, conflicting objectives to the level that the community wants could be difficult, there may be a need to review and establish an iterative process of selecting desirable objectives and attempting to meet these.

Discussion

A discussion was chaired by Pvofs s~r Peter Cullen (CRC). However, partially through poor audience response, the session evolved into more of a lecturelreflection format. Some of Professor Cullen's insights were thought provoking and are presented here.

How easy is it to get all of the stakeholders in a particular issue or a particular catchment involved. Interest groups are easily accessed, but how do you involve the silent majority? The idea of professional advocates to represent such interests was discussed.

There is a need for education, but we need to be carefbl not to overload the stakeholders.

Many scientists will retreat when their opinion is challenged and they don't have strong data (this is especially the case in ecological studies where the data is rarely conclusive).

An Adaptive Environmental Management System was briefly discussed, this concept is based on trying to work out a cause and effect system and involves using academics and local communities, etc. However, the system has the

possibility of getting into a blame mode, eg. can get scientists at loggerheads with industrialists. The system has a lot of ambiguities and cannot be definitive. It was considered this technique may be able to determine a usefbl process solution rather than a definitive solution.

Science is about putting up alternative ideas and testing them - management wants definitive answers.

Managing and Assessing the Fish Resource

Mr Craig Schiller (CRC) outlined some of the problems that are confronting the maintenance and diversity of native fish populations. He considered that unless there are some changes our native fish species will be lost. Presently there is a reduction in size, distribution and genetic diversity of our native fish population as well as an overall lack of biodiversity. This reduction is occumng principally through habitat degradation and river regulation and specifically, through; desnagging, loss of riparian vegetation, changes to water quality (turbidity, blue green algae, thermal pollution etc.), modification of the natural streamflow regime, changes in seasonality and volumes, and reduction in the frequency and variation of floods. He also considers a major problem to be the disruption of fish migration patterns by bamers, fish commonly move to habitats for spawning eg Golden, Silver and Spangled Perch.

Assessing the Groundwater Resource

Mr Neil Jones (CRC - retired) presented an entertaining lecture aimed at highlighting the importance of considering what is commonly a forgotten resource; the groundwater. Some time was spent explaining the nature of groundwater and comment was made that groundwater as a resource is suitable for a staged development - but, the questions were raised by the speaker - how reasonable limits and development should be defined, how far can you draw down the resource and what suffers?

He put forward the point that red and brown soils can be indicative of groundwater recharge areas and that yellow, blue and grey soils can be indicative of discharge areas.

An interesting story was presented from some of his earlier work. While Mr. Jones was working at Hart's Bluff in the NT some of the locals complained of stomach aches that they thought may have been caused by the groundwater they were drinking. Neil looked at the aquifer geology and found the aquifer formation contained dolomite, calcium and pyrite. This combination had effectively turned the water into a solution of Epsom Salts.

Selecting Management Approaches

Mr lan Lmvrence (CRC) discussed various points that should be considered in assessing management strategies. He argued for an iterative approach, and for starting with the development of a range of options. This helps prevent

managers being locked into a particular way of thinking (preconceptions block our understanding and our ability to deal with issues).

The presentation considered categories of management measures and some of the points raised related to this topic include:

- the need to improve compliance of actual land uses with appropriate guidelines and standards

- the need for fbrther education and raising of community awareness - improved availability of data/information - review of the appropriateness of the designated environmental values

Water Supply - Risk and Community Views

Mr Cary ReynolA (ACT Electricity and Water) gave some interesting advice in assessing community views and obtaining community involvement. He considered it is inappropriate to design a draft study, before community consultation is undertaken, as this creates synergies that may not be appropriate and may alienate sections of the community. It is important that the community sees that the agenda under consideration as not being already set. ACT E&W employed CSIRO, as an independent consultant, to write an issues paper. It was only after this paper was completed that some planning was undertaken. Soon after this initial planning, market research was carried out on the ACT E&W's interpretation of the issues identified. This approach was undertaken to see if ACT E&W had correctly interpreted the issues and they were hitting the targets the community had set.

Some additional. interesting points were put fonvard:

- ACT E&W saves $10 M for each year that it postpones construction of a proposed dam. The authority tries not to outlay large amounts of money on infrastructure when alternatives exist

- the observation was made that education does not reduce water consumption

- ACT will have 70 ha under effluent irrigation by the end of this year.

Resource Assessment: Environmental Flows

Mr Peter Liston (ACT Planning Authority) presented an overview of the technology and issues relating to determining environmental flows. A more detailed analysis of this topic (i.e. not constrained by a 30 minute presentation) can be found in 'The Surface Water Resources of Cape York Peninsula - Horn A. M., Cape York Peninsula land Use Strategy'

Mr Liston outlined some of the components of COAG policy that relate to environmental flows and these are sumrnarised as:

- giving priority to formally determining water allocation, including allocations for the environment

- determining environmental requirements on the best scientific information available

- institute arrangements to provide a better balance between resource use and allocations for the environment in river systems that are over allocated

- consider establishing environmental contingency allocations to be reviewed after 5 years

- undertake appropriate environmental impact assessments

Performance Monitoring and Reporting

Professor Peter Cullen (CRC) outlined some of the problems with current water quality monitoring strategies. Some of the points raised included; the lack of clear and specific goals, that researchers and managers often monitor merely because they feel they have to monitor (this may be for general purpose requirements or because of EPA requirements). The objectives of a monitoring strategy are not always well thought through.

Some specific points raised were:

- NSW Water Resources were assessing the ratio of K/Na every month in some areas on their chemist's advice. It was considered during this talk that this ratio is findamentally related to the geology and is very stable, a more appropriate monitoring of this ratio was considered to be once every 10 yrs.

- In Sweden samples taken for diagnostic purposes are stored for six weeks and are discarded if there are no problems identified, saving on lab costs and preventing 'overanalysis' (this is workable if the analytes are stable).

A number of Key Issues in Monitoring were considered. including:

- many indicators are surrogates and their validity needs to be assessed - how well linked is the indicator with the phenomena of concern? - precision and reliability - how do we interpret the measurements? - how do we handle time and extreme events? - why are you presenting and who are you presenting to? - how do we present the data?

Case Study: Satellite Imagery and GIS Systems

Dr Brian Bufton (CRC) represented the commercial arm of the CRC and gave an outline of some of the consulting capabilities of the CRC and the commercial activities the centre was involved in. He also gave a rundown of the theory of remote sensing and raised some good general points on this topic. The speaker indicated that remote sensing (satellite, air photo, radar etc.) is sensing energy (reflection), and there is a need to be aware of what changes to the data the atmosphere may cause. It is possible to get sensor drifts and

different features can appear similar and vice versa. There is a need to consider the spectral, spatial, temporal and radiometric resolution in interpreting such data.

Dr Button briefly made reference to a new policy in NSW called SEPP46 that precludes ploughing land that has not been ploughed during the past 10 yrs without government approval. He outlined the role remote sensing has had in helping to administer this policy.

Consultation and Community Involvement

Professor Peter Cullen (CRC) presented a number of points on why the scientific community fails to achieve effective public participation, how this process can become perverted and why many agencies fail to do this task effectively.

Some of the points raised are: that the public is sceptical of experts, the public commonly does not know how to process the information, and that consultants can be ignorant and can (in some identified cases) be pure salesmen for a particular idea. Professor Cullen bemoaned that;- a good trick (this has been done), is to release a report in late December for comment in January - this minimises troublesome input. Also, he indicated some problems occur in 'Landcare' as a concept, this setup has the potential to become a bargaining type arena.

There is a tendency now to try to get Landcare groups to come together to form total catchment groups. The community (bottom up approach) is capable of integrating information. Generally, the community is often aware of broad problems within their catchment and can bring in consultants as needed. Disciplinary experts usually can't provide a holistic approach, they often can commonly only provide detailed advice on certain aspects of a particular problem.

Some interesting comments on the players involved was provided as personal views of Professor Cullen's and these are worth briefly recounting:

Landcare

- uses existing social networks - has ownership of the problem - issue of scale - Landcare, TCM - allows integrated involvement - framework for prioritising and then channelling government hnds

Scientists

- poor at predictive work - find it hard to simplify (keep putting qualifications in) - need to be able to make estimates

- public is suspicious of scientists, scientists commonly do not have the skills or interest to deliver to the public

- also, scientists are not good at explaining consequences (of change) to the community

Usehlness of Scientists

- often contradictory - often wrong - often take on the philosophy of their employer - err on the side of caution - many issues related to science are also related to values - most ecosystems are dynamic

Planner's View of Scientists

- scientists have difficulty in communicating - lack of motivation amongst scientists to participate wholeheartedly in

the planning process - scientists are driven by the need to publish in journals not by the need

to work on planning documents

Scientist's View of Planners

- planners are inadequately trained to handle complex data - don't know where to find information

Some worthwhile points were delivered on the topic of delivering worthwhile scientific advice, including:

- it takes time to build trust with the community who are wary of outside experts

- it may take 3 or 4 substantive interactions before trust is developed - the greatest influence in setting the agenda is by asking questions

field inspections are important, Generally, in the field the community knows more than the scientists. If the scientists ask questions and seek the advice of the community the implied power balance between the scientists and the community can be reversed. This can help in the comunitys' acceptance of the scientists

- the community can handle uncertainty and scientists must help make value judgements

- a bamer to good decisions is where agencies maintain there temtory by not making information available or by stringing out processes

- need to actively get all players involved, not just interest groups and environmentalists

Waterwatch

Ms Jinnie Love# (ACT Environment and Land Bureau) went through some of the objectives and broader points relating to Waterwatch. Including the need for hands on data collection which is important for building community involvement and ownership. Also there is a need for thorough training and ongoing support. There is a need to instil a natural resources ethic and to monitor the role of the regulator.

Nationally there are around 2000 Waterwatch groups. Some of the parameters that are monitored through Waterwatch were identified and these include, habitat assessments, water bugs (as indicators of water quality), flow regimes and physical and chemical parameters.

It is hoped by the end of the year all children in the ACT will know their catchment address.

Implementation: Planning and Development Controls

Mr Ian Lawrence (CRC) discussed some broad aspects of environmental value identification, implementation instruments and mechanisms. He also discussed planning and development based controls including; statutoly controls, infrastructure provision, market forces and the role of an informed and participative community.

Sewage Treatment Options

Mr David Barnes (Sinclair Knight Mertz) presented an extended review (90 rnins) of sewerage treatment. He has provided very comprehensive notes on this topic, but it is worthwhile including a few of his personal observations and statements here:

- wastewater treatment as a term is really a misnomer in regard to municipal sewerage, it is really a separation process

- settlement is the cheapest and most widely used process for 'treating' sewerage

- 30 - 40 % of the cost of wastewater treatment occurs in the settlement phase, there is very little use of chemicals though some are used as disinfectants and to speed up settling processes.

- domestic sewage has a higher N and P than industrial sewerage - the 5 day BOD test was determined in Britain (circa 1910) on the

basis that no river in that country took more than 5 days to flow to the sea

- sewerage has BOD of 200 - 400 mg/L - Sydney has 4000 points in its sewerage system that overflow in a 1 in

2 yr storm - material can take three days to pass through the sewerage system

- use of sludge fiom a sewerage treatment works is usually limited by the Cu concentration (which comes from Cu pipes) it is dficult to remove metals fiom a matrix like sludge

- if Australian trees are supplied with excessive nutrients (eg effluentlsewerage) they grow quickly but become structurally weak

Implementation: The Role of the Regulator

Mr Gary Whitecross (NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA)) presented an interesting rundown of some of the problems faced by an environmental regulator. These problems include the continuing resource degradation, diminishing returns on control of point sources, the need for community input, the need to consider the economic costs of problems and solutions

The role of the EPA was discussed and it was considered that this organisation needs to look at improving its education and advice role and provide guidelines to industry and the community. This is partly because industry is increasingly wanting to get it right (environmental management) first up.

The regulation and enforcement role was discussed. The NSW EPA now has a $1 M fine and up to 7 yrs imprisonment for aggravated pollution, it also has the ability to take company directors as well as individual polluters to court. A load based licensing system is being currently developed in NSW.

The NSW EPA is setting up interim pollution practice benchmarks. These are intended to cover all waterways by December 1996. It is also initiating an independent public inquiry process to recommend benchmark targets for priority sensitive catchments. The speaker considers such benchmarks need to be based on current scientific knowledge, known community preferences and utilise the National Water Quality Management Strategy methodology.

The speaker indicated there is a real need to do something in a quick "suck and see" approach, and there is a need to develop regulatory building blocks that can be adapted and modified

Further points that need to be considered in environmental regulation are; the comparison of past and present water quality, the need to evaluate the benefits and costs of various strategies, and the formulation of options for community consideration.

Selecting and Evaluating Management Strategies

Mr Ian Lawrence (CRC) discussed in a general sense, aspects of weighing the merits of different management strategies. These weighings need to be explicit as they are a type of filter, they need to be made clear to the public and the public needs to be aware of the potential for bias in making any type of weighting.

The engineering area tends to concentrate on least cost solutions, but the speaker considered we now need to attempt benefidcost analyses, though it was acknowledged this poses problems in assessing externalities. Ideally, it would be beneficial to develop an economic model on which to base management strategies but these are very expensive and take a long time before they can be routinely operated.

Some ideas on accounting and comparison of performance techniques were presented. Management cannot simply rank performance against indicators where there are multiple objectives, there is usually a need to involve trade offs. The planning matrix technique can be used to get an idea of which aspects perform well (or otherwise), in relation to various options (this can also involve weighings). This can help get a better understanding of the equity performance of the management options.

The multiobjective planning approach was considered. A theoretical example was discussed where there are two options of equal environmental benefit. The point was put forward that one may cost less but may not be a better option on other grounds such as social equity issues etc. In such a case some trade offs may need to be considered. The multi objective planning approach can be used as a tool in such cases to evaluate and approve certain options.

Case Study: Upper Murrumbidgee River Basin

Mr Peter Liston (ACT Planning Authority) outlined an export/transport model for total P, suspended solids and Nitrate for the upper Murmmbidgee. These indicators were identified as key components for this area (there is no major industry in this catchment). The speaker acknowledged that it is difficult with limited time and knowledge to model many of the system components that may have an environmental effect. The model was used to determine if significant environmental problems were actually occumng.

For each subcatchment the model calculated the loads of the modelled parameters going down each of the creeks and appropriate target loads. This information was used to determine the areas that are most problematical. The model was then used to help determine the effectiveness of certain management options and combinations of such options, eg buffer strips, erosion control, better sewage treatment

The speaker indicated that for the 5 years the catchment was modelled 99% of exports of the modelled variables occurred on one particular day.

Monitoring Outcomes

Dr Bill Maher (CRC) gave a short presentation on the nature of good objectives in relation to environmental management. He mentioned essential criteria for good objectives as being specific, precise and measurable in quantity, quality, time, cost etc. He also indicated that if you don't specify objectives you don't actually know if your objectives have been meet.

The Way Forward: Industry Transitions

Professor Peter Cullen (CRC) outlined some of ideas on the water industly in transition that were determined at a workshop conducted by the Australian Science and Technology Council. This workshop looked at what questions will need to be answered in 50 yrs and the concept of 'foresighting' was linked in. "Foresighting" was explained as a structured way of looking forward.

The following points were identified at the 'foresighting' workshop:

Change Drivers

- neither the federal government (Labour) or opposition (Coalition) have a commitment to decentralisation. As a consequence Sydney and Melbourne are likely to continue to grow with significant environmental implications

- the drive for economic efficiency will continue - the ESD concept will probably continue - public health will become an important issue

Economic Efficiency

- the Hilmer and COAG reports argue for greater economic efficiency - increasing cost of capital - privitisation of assets - demand for efficiency

Public Health

- growing consumer demand for 'pure' water - increased perception of a need to filter and purify mains water - fear of chemicals

The Emerging Water Paradigm

- catchment based, considering all sources and sinks - re-use rather than use and discard - maintain key ecological processes for ESD - water of appropriate quality for the particular use - dual reticulation - reduce demand and waste by better design - requirements driven by water quality in receiving waters - community understanding and involvement

Treatment and Use of Water

- source controls through catchment management - multiple levels of protection for potable water

- storage controls will increase to attempt to reduce algal growth and organic load in water

- new approaches to treatment and disinfection - attempt to reduce water use to minimise extraction and the impacts

of disposal of water used by communities, agriculture and industry - water efficient appliances and toilets (selling the idea of water

efficient appliances in Australia has been a disaster)

Urban Development. Re-use and Stormwater

- urban layout and density determines the cost of pipes - use of roof water and grey water will become increasingly important

issues - storm water capture and re-use - the problems of pollution generation and transfer of this pollution

away from the source - groundwater

Wastewater Collection and Treatment

- non water based collection systems (for solid sewerage) will become more significant

- on site treatment - composting - Introduction of technologies for replacing/rehrbishing pipes etc.

Aquatic Ecosystems

- impacts of discharges on receiving waters - over extraction of water for irrigation - blocking of fish passages

- there is a need for more advocates for the resource there is comparatively a much larger number of advocates for industry and other users

- privitisation of the water industry in Vic. (Vic. will probably not be doing any long term research in the next 5 years)

- increased conflicts across agency boundaries

4.0 FIELD EXCURSION - ASPECTS OF URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT

A field excursion was conducted on the 6th February and lasted for approximately 1.5 hours. Two sites were visited; a Gross Pollutant Trap upstream of Lake Ginninderra in Northeast Canberra and Gungahlin a new suburb in north Canberra. At the second site urban water management strategies for Ginninderra Creek, including artificial wetlands (Gungahlin Pond), a sediment retention pond and a silt fence in a new land division area were discussed. The excursion was led by Mr Ian Lawrence of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology. Various aspects of these controls were explained including design criteria, operation and maintenance, and perceived effectiveness.

The control structures shown were explained as being quite effective in reducing pollution of waterways but have completely altered the hydrology of the water courses. It is arguable that with intense urban development that any environmental flow values of these water courses would have been greatly diminished in any case. It was indicated that the construction of the larger ponds (up to several ha) were almost self funding through the increased land values adjacent to such ponds and a consequent greater local council rate levy.

It appears that these structures were constructed primarily to be visually pleasing and reduce the health and negative visual impact of small polluted natural drainages running through an urban environment The transference of this technology, on a similar scale to other urban areas may be difficult, as there is commonly less unoccupied land available than there is in Canberra and other centres appear to have much greater difficulty in attracting government assistance.

The handout for this excursion appears in Appendix C as: Lawrence, Ian (CRC for Freshwater Ecology): Field Excursion - ACT Urban Stormwater Control Facilities.

5.0 CONCLUSIONS

This course contained a good overview of the issues in regional catchment management and outlined many of the problems; environmental, technical, social, political, managerial and fbnding that are confronting the water industry. Some problems that may soon be encountered in this area were also outlined. In this the course content was very usefbl and a large amount of documentation was provided of which most will serve as quality reference material

However, the approach of short lectures, while informative, does not lead to a great retention of the knowledge presented to the audience. Additionally, the lack of detailed analysis of real life problems and encouragement of audience thinking (not always easy - as was demonstrated by the poor participation in the two discussion periods) warrants consideration by the course organisers.

This course is probably of most benefit to an experienced worker just coming into this area or to a graduate practitioner. Those with substantial experience in the area may find large parts of the material are well known and moreover it is difficult to find application for much of the material in the normal day to day work. However some of the points presented may well prove very usel l as solid background material for upcoming reports and presentations.