Melbourne Water

In 2004, Melbourne Water and EPA Victoria received Australian Government funding to assist in the development of a Water Quality Improvement Plan for the Port Phillip and Western Port region, regarded by the Commonwealth Government as a coastal ‘hotspot’.

Better Bays and Waterways is a 5-year plan to further improve water quality in the Port Phillip and Western Port region. It contains 93 actions within a series of management programs. Six background projects have informed the development of the plan (outlined below). The plan is also supported by sophisticated predictive catchment and receiving waters modelling to forecast the potential impacts of climate and land use change scenarios.

The subsequent management actions and their programs focus on the challenges of:

• point and diffuse source water pollution
• localised impacts
• urban expansion
• climate change

These actions aim to mitigate the impacts of human activities on water quality. They collectively address the impacts of nutrients (predominantly nitrogen) on Port Phillip Bay and sediment loads on Western Port.

The plan provides for improved protection of core values including Marine National Parks and Sanctuaries, Ramsar listed wetlands, and key habitats supporting important local ecology. Better Bays and Waterways complements the range of water quality management and environment protection strategies, plans and programs already put in place by the Government.

Better Bays and Waterways combines advances already made and identifies priority areas for future action. The plan provides direction for agencies, communities and industry groups working to improve water quality across the rivers, creeks and bays of the region.

Download the plan:

Population = 4.3 million people
The region's waterways:

• supply water for drinking, agriculture and industry
• support a wide range of flora and fauna
• provide a place for community recreation
• are threatened by increasing pollutant loads from land based activities including urban and rural development, agriculture practices and industries.

Did you know?

• Excessive nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) can lead to algal blooms and increased aquatic plant growth which can impact on the uses of waterways and bays (e.g. recreational, supply and habitat).
• Nutrients can enter the waterways a number of ways however one of the most predominant sources is through urban and rural stormwater.
• Stormwater can carry with it a range of pollutants including sediments, nutrients, toxicants, chemicals, litter and pathogens.
• 95% of the litter on beaches comes from suburban streets through the stormwater system.
• Cigarette butts make up about one third of the one billion items of litter finding its way into Melbourne's waterways each year.

Water quality has improved significantly since the 1970s, when waste produced by industry was redirected from the regions waterways into the sewerage system and sewerage services were extended throughout urban areas.

These efforts, and more since, have meant that despite a rapidly increasing population, the levels of pollutants such as nutrients, sediments, heavy metals and E.coli in our waterways have been significantly reduced. But there's more to be done.

Upper catchment areas - Excellent to good condition

Rivers and creeks in mountainous, forested areas (much of which is protected for water supply purposes) are in excellent to good condition.

Rural and urban areas - deteriorating condition

Water quality deteriorates downstream as the effect of agriculture, industry, urbanisation and litter takes its toll.

Increasing population and urban development as well as changes to rural land use (for example the trend towards more intensive methods of farming) pose challenges to the way we will further improve the quality of our water in the years to come.

We will also need to address the effects of climate change. This means improving our understanding of waterway systems and the implications that more frequent and extreme weather events will have on water quality.

A number of projects have been funded to inform the plan's direction:

Water Sensitive Urban Design: Best Management Practices

This project piloted programs with local government and industry for implementing best management methods for improving water quality in industrial areas. The project developed water management tools for the building and construction industry, and looked at ways in which to improve regulations to ensure the health of our water. The Kingston Industrial Stormwater Project won the Environmental Innovation Award at the Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities 2009 Awards.

Loads-Based Monitoring Program

Melbourne Water and the Environment Protection Authority maintain fixed site water quality monitoring programs that keep a close watch on the quality of water in our bays, rivers and streams. Melbourne Water, as part of the Better Bay and Waterways Program has upgraded its Loads-Based Monitoring Program to support these programs by capturing the wet weather events that will enable the estimation of pollutant loads to the bays.

Ports E2 Model

Ports E2 is a management tool that greatly assisted in the development of Better Bay and Waterways. The model identifies the sources of pollutants in our water and enables us to trial differing land management systems including improved stormwater management in urban areas.

Agricultural Best Management Practices

This project provided a scientific review of farm management practices and their relative benefits to water quality. The project has assisted in both determining the barriers and identifying the environmental benefits in implementing a rural land management program and has informed the development of the Melbourne Water Rural Land Program.

Melbourne Water will commence the Rural Land Program in two pilot catchments in 2009. In the Upper Lang Lang/Bass region the pilot will focus on dryland grazing and in the Upper Yarra catchment the pilot will focus on intensive agriculture and dryland grazing. The pilots will integrate farm planning and extension with financial incentives, monitoring and evaluation.

Beaches

This project identified and mapped swimming beaches throughout the region and investigated water quality at priority beaches. This information has helped develop ways to address identified water quality problems.

Offsets

Through this project we explored a range of options to potentially use environmental offsets to improve water quality. The concept was explored to provide the best environmental outcome with the least cost to the community. The project focussed on reducing the amount of nitrogen entering Port Phillip Bay.

A Stakeholder Advisory Group was established to provide opportunities for wider community input into development of the plan.

The group discussed priority issues and threats, and examined projects including urban stormwater management, pollution monitoring and agricultural land management practices.

Members were chosen for their ability to represent the people and organisations with an interest in, or impact on, water quality in the region.

A coordinating committee will be established to oversee the implementation of Better Bays and Waterways. This committee will comprise a partnership of key agencies, departments and local government involved in water quality improvements to ensure the approach to managing water quality issues in the region is informed, coordinated and adaptive.

Implementation of actions in the plan has already commenced with a number of key programs already well underway.