Environmental Opportunities Forum Wrap New
Date: 17-Feb-2025
The qldwater Environmental Opportunities Forum held in Gympie on 13 February 2025 brought together a great mix of urban water service providers and environmental organisations to share case studies and experiences of successful projects.
Here are some of the highlights:
The event was opened by Gympie Regional Council Mayor Glen Hartwig highlighting the importance of urban water services that is often taken for granted.
Cameron Jackson from Urban Utilities (UU) asked whether nutrient offsets could be the catalyst that accelerates environmental stewardship in SEQ, and his answer was a resounding yes.
There are many reasons UU decided to invest in nutrient offsets. Affordable urban water services depend on healthy ecosystems, and they have the backing of their customers, stakeholders and integrated planning partners. By taking on a stewardship role, UU focused on integrated catchment management to repair nature in catchments that have been experiencing long-term environmental decline. Data showed that fine sediment was the primary threat to Moreton Bay, exacerbated by point source and stormwater quality.
Nutrient offsets are cheaper than Sewage Treatment Plan upgrades. Cameron talked about a couple of examples, including the Port of Brisbane that remediated 3.3km of streambanks, abating 14.5 thousand tonnes of nutrients annually. In Ipswich, the award-winning Small Creek urban renewal project provided an offsite stormwater solution that stopped nutrients running into the Brisbane River while creating a beautiful space for the community to enjoy.
UU have set themselves a target – to turn the brown snake blue before the Olympics. If not Tangalooma’s white sand may turn muddy!
Dr Micheal Newham from the Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation explained the Science of nutrient offsets. While there are three different types of offsets including Point to point, Diffuse source and Market mechanisms, his presentation focused on Diffuse source examples.
Micheal explained the science and calculations of environmental offsets with a goal of no net deterioration of quality.
Kylie Crouch from Unitywater shared the results of some nutrient offset case studies that are contributing to healthy and resilient rivers.
Unitywater’s goal for net zero nutrients to waterways have led to an investment in a number of projects including the Yandina Creek Wetland (part of the Blue Heart project) that transformed a former 191-hectare sugar cane farm into a beautiful wetland that removes 5 tonnes of nutrients per year from the Maroochy River.
Unitywater also restored 2.4km along the Caboolture River, preventing 3,800 tonnes of soil from eroding by laying tree logs along the riverbank to prevent boat wash from eroding the banks.
Other projects include a five-year trial to restore oyster / shellfish reefs in the South Pine River, a seagrass trial and dosing with Diatomix to outcompete algae growth.
Mark Scanlan from Gympie Regional Council (GRC) told a touching tale of his introduction to Blue Green Algae (BGA) shortly after starting his new role at the end of 2024. While GRC have experienced and managed BGA blooms at Kinbombi storage ponds, a recent restructure saw the knowledge of BGA management walk out the door when previous staff were made redundant, and Mark had a harsh introduction to the challenges of algae blooms when all the right conditions converged over Christmas 2024. With heavy rainfall washing nutrients from surrounding farms into the creek, cell counts kept rising and Mark received a crash course in managing BGA blooms. To make matters worse, the festive season saw many labs closing so getting timely feedback on water tests left the team in dire straits. Mark learned the value of testing with a Fluorometer and managed to get the blooms under control while the rest of Australia enjoyed barbies on the beach. Kudos to Mark and the GRC team for their dedication and hard work to get the algae under control.
Callym Dunleavy from Water Technology is on a mission to help service providers transition to water sensitive communities. Having done extensive research through a Masters degree, Callym is now embarking on a PhD at Griffith University to explore the different levels of engagement from a planning perspective, from our individual actions at a household level to neighbourhoods, communities, cities and finally the state level. Callym’s theory is that they are all interconnected and that we will experience social, economic and environmental consequences if we don’t break down the silos and act together in the transition to water sensitive communities. That means looking at the way we deliver water (70% of potable water is used for non-drinking purposes) and embedding Water Sensitive Urban Design into planning / policy at all levels. (WSUD returns $3 to $7 for every $1 invested).
Sophie Blond from Noosa Shire Council and Stacey Lindsay from Unitywater talked about their collaboration to improve the water quality in Burgess Creek. Since 1997, the Noosa Sewage Treatment Plant have been discharging treated water into what used to an ephemeral creek. The released water attributes the bulk flow, along with stormwater and groundwater from local springs. With an engaged local community concerned about the health of the creek, Unitywater formed a project steering group to bring together various stakeholders to develop technical solutions and a shared vision. Noosa Council and Unitywater formed an interagency working group that meets bimonthly. Council focused on getting historical Receiving Environment Monitoring Program (REMP) data and started independent monitoring of water quality and morphological changes, working with the University of Sunshine Coast to monitor flow velocity. Unitywater also funded the development of a framework for an integrated catchment management plan. Other project deliverables included the installation of four new groundwater bores, weed removal and fish barrier assessment since the increased water flow stimulated fish migration of sea mullet.
Shona Sengstock and Brad Wedlock from the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC) provided an overview of their Waterwatch Program and how they deliver integrated catchment management in collaboration with local councils. The Mary River was one of the most degraded rivers, suffering from extensive land clearing and sand mining. The MRCCC was established to provide a coordinated effort to improve the river and to educate the local community about the importance of the river for threatened species. Establishing the Waterwatch program as a citizen science initiative helped the MRCCC to collect more than 80,000 data points over the past 25 years, with around 80 volunteers sampling across ten networks. These volunteers are the eyes on the river, providing valuable community observations that helps the MRCCC to deliver a report card every 3 years and workshops to keep the volunteers engaged. They also do regular “catchment crawls” at 38 sites to collect data and network and host an annual Find a Frog in February event.
Brad highlighted the partnership with Noosa Council including their combined work on a waterways plan, water quality monitoring situational analysis, mapping creeks to identify reaches with no WQ monitoring efforts and identifying non-compliant sites. Interestingly a number of pristine sites received an F on the report card, and MRCCC research identified that the water quality guidelines were at fault, not the quality of the water. The water types vary between coastal, wallum and upper / middle estuaries, and in the Everglades it has a unique acid quality that doesn’t align with the water quality guidelines.
Jess Dean from qldwater introduced the new swimlocal Mapboards Module, providing an overview of the work that resulted from a partnership with Noosa Council. Mapboards allow SWIM users to pin sites on a map, making it easier to identify and investigate data from a particular site. This new module will further establish SWIM as the number one choice of data management for local councils and utilities alike.
qldwater CEO Georgina Davis wrapped up the proceedings for the day with a succinct message that we may not be as siloed as we thought! We look forward to working with our members and other stakeholders to keep connecting the dots in our advocacy to deliver safe, secure and sustainable water to all Queensland communities and to protect our precious environmental values.