eFlash #475
Date: 17-Mar-2021
In this edition: Draft Guideline – Activities Releasing Contaminants into Reef Catchment Waters| NPR Indicator Review: Update| Welcome to our new Affiliate Members| qldwater Footy Tipping Comp 2021 – Last Chance!| Ambient Monitoring of PFAS in Queensland
1. Draft Guideline – Activities Releasing Contaminants into Reef Catchment Waters
Activities such as sewage and water treatment plants, land-based aquaculture or mining in any Great Barrier Reef region must meet new discharge standards to ensure there is no increase in nutrient or sediment pollutant loads from 1 June 2021.
The Department of Environment and Science is inviting comment on the draft guideline ‘Application Requirements for activities that release particular contaminants to the Great Barrier Reef catchment waters’.
The primary purpose of the guideline is to:
- assist applicants in making a well-supported environmental authority (EA) application, where the applicant proposes impacts to Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchment waters from the release of fine sediment and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN)
- describe the manner in which the department will assess an EA application in accordance with section 41AA of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2019 (EP Regulation).
Section 41AA of the EP Regulation has been included in the EA assessment framework to ensure that there is no net decline in water quality of GBR catchment waters due to new or amended prescribed environmentally relevant activities and resource activities.
From 1 June 2021, the administering authority must consider section 41AA of the EP Regulation when making an environmental management decision for an environmentally relevant activity in the GBR catchment waters.
Information session
The department will hold an information session on 11am on 24 March 2021 to provide an overview of the draft guideline and answer questions.
You can register for the information session by emailing rrs.consultation@des.qld.gov.au by 5pm on Friday 19 March 2021.
Make a submission on the draft guideline
Further information on how to make a submission, including a submission/feedback template, is available on the department’s website.
Submissions must be received by 5pm on Friday 16 April 2021.
If you wish to contribute to a joint sector response with qldwater please send any comments to rfearon@qldwater.com.au by the 9th of April or contact Rob on 0428 300 208.
2. NPR Indicator Review: Update
As part of the NPR indicator review currently underway the NPR Review Team has now completed the initial ‘current NPR indictor’ information collection phase (a series of workshops, submissions, and an indicator survey). qldwater attended all the workshops and provided both a submission and a response to the indicator survey.
All submissions made to the NPR Review Team are now available on the NPR website (www.npr.harc.com.au/review-submissions/).
The NPR Review Team are now processing the survey results and will combine these with insights from the workshops to begin identifying the pathway forward for the current indicators, and any gaps in the indicator set.
Two workshops are planned for late March to examine national outcome areas and themes that users see the indicator set supporting an understanding of. These workshops will be by invitation and include participation by senior industry professionals (and will be attended by qldwater).
A national briefing by the NPR Review Team, to share the progress of the review with everyone, is planned for late April.
3. Welcome to our new Affiliate Members
qldwater is pleased to welcome The Water and Carbon Group, GBA Consulting Engineers, Calibre Group, Diona and Hunter h2oas new Affiliate Members for 2021/22.
To learn more about our new Affiliate Members please visit Our Affiliates page on our website.
qldwater now offers the opportunity of Affiliate Memberships to other industry partners, consultants and service providers located in and outside Queensland.
If you would like to enquire about our Affiliate Membership, please email enquiry@qldwater.com.au for more information.
4. qldwater Footy Tipping Comp 2021 - Last Chance!
You are only one week behind; it is not too late. Register now for the qldwater Footy Tipping.
This year there will be a weekly prize for one person who selects the most winners in either Code. Even average tippers get lucky once during the competition and you can tell your colleagues you are a prize-winner even if (like Rob Fearon) you know nothing about Football.
- Joining is free, simply go to https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/qldwater_Footy_Comp_2021
- Click on the green join button
- refresh your account or create a new one
- Choose “qldwater Footy Comp 2021” competition with password “qldwater21!”
- Enter your preferences and start tipping in the NRL and or AFL.
There will be a mid-season mini-comp with a prize for all tippers who score higher than David Cameron in the 12th round. The actual prize is to be advised but with the bar set so low*, many winners are projected, and if so, it will likely be something like the coveted qldwater polo-shirts.
The rules are pretty simple:
- Not tipping in any round will give you a default score (the away teams but with a maximum).
- Each tipper can choose 5 joker rounds for each Code (which doubles your score for that week).
- One $30 e-voucher will be awarded each week via email. This will be determined by a random draw among the week’s best tippers in both Codes.
- One e-voucher for $200 will be awarded for the season winner in each Code after the Grand Final. If two tippers end on the same score then margin scores will determine the ultimate winner.
- Only employees of members or affiliates of qldwater can tip and win prizes. Some qldwater staff participate in the competition but are ineligible for the end of season prize.
*Dave would like to point out that he can’t really remember exactly what happened last year because he’s ineligible for prizes but vaguely recalls finishing on top of the NRL table and second in the AFL (or thereabouts). Just saying.
5. Ambient Monitoring of PFAS in Queensland
The Department of Environment and Science has released the results of its program of Ambient Monitoring for PFAS after several delays.
The program was instigated by an enforceable undertaking against QANTAS, which was the result of a spill of PFAS containing fire-fighting foam to the Brisbane River estuary in 2017. As a result of the undertaking, QANTAS funded a year-long program monitoring for PFAS at a selection of impacted and non-impacted sites from South East Queensland to as far north as Townsville. The monitoring was conducted by the Department of Environment and Science.
The monitoring program concluded in late 2019. In December 2020, qldwater submitted a Right to Information request to the Queensland Government for access to the dataset and resulting report.
qldwater is pleased to announce that the dataset and report have now been released to the public and can be accessed via this link.
We will be reviewing the dataset and report in the coming weeks and discussing the implications for the sector with our SWEAP and qCRAC groups.
qldwater is a business unit of IPWEAQ
Back to list