Strategy

How can it be done?

It would be nice to turn off the tap and remove the pipelines around Australia so once again people may enjoy the beauty of the ocean without illness or experiencing a denuded environment. A holistic and committed approach is required…something that has not happened before. The outfall campaign is not just about what to do with the waste, it is about achieving sustainability within the water cycle…something that has not happened this side of European settlement.

The solution to the problems inherent with the ocean outfalls, and of the wider problems in catchment areas, river systems and waterways, lies in the methodology of Integrated Catchment Management.

This process, when implemented in a committed manner can gain a sustainable balance between water quantity and water quality, land use and river health. When all components of the water cycle are managed with the environment in mind, water is used as a resource and the huge volumes of waste "at the end of the pipe" are not evident.

Sustainability requires integration of social, economic and environmental factors, with sustainability in mind. The natural infrastructure needs to be as valued much as the built infrastructure.

To achieve this:

• Balance between regulation and the market demand for water needs to be determined
• Holistic management to maximise the overall value of water to society
• Strategic management is required
• Change management is required to flush out the old way of thinking and remove the toxic residue
• Shared vision is required between community, industry and government
• Understanding of all issues
• Change the consumption of less than 20% of the world's population consuming 80% of world's resources

The definitions of Catchment Management vary according to the organisation. An example of what Integrated Catchment Management is not, is Melbourne Water's approach to "Catchment Management". This involves logging old growth forests in the Upper Yarra Regions where water is collected for water supply. The justification for this practice is that regions that have been clear felled are not farmed for water supply that same year, and that this practice has been going on for 30 years. A severe lack of understanding of issues is inherent in this thinking and it is not serving to provide the best environmental benefit.

Rivers and lakes are the report card of our civilisation: the score is not so good. An active management approach is required that recognises the "rulebook has not been written yet" and improve practice when a new level of understanding about the environment is achieved. Currently management processes take advantage of the fact that the rule book development lags behind industrial processes. For example, the use of the testing indication Escherichia Coli has been used all over the world for many years. It is accepted in the scientific community this methodology of reactive testing in isolation is not adequate. As Australian guidelines are under review for deriving alternate test methods, Melbourne Water are unable to defend their use of this test.

Pollution can be thought of as a resource that hasn't been put to good use…(same goes for bureaucrats, politicians and businesses).  

Maximise the amount of water re-use. Currently a paltry 1% of water is reused in Melbourne. This will only happen by upgrading the standard of water to a minimum of Class A standard. Clean Ocean Foundation advocate the upgrade of effluent to potable standard that will provide 100% reuse.

Minimise water requirements. This will reduce the demand on water supplies and reduce effluent treatment requirements. The major part of finding an alternative to dumping 42% of Melbourne's effluent at Gunnamatta has to do with the massive volume of waste water that is generated.

In periods of wet weather the volume of flow to the Eastern Treatment Plant increases dramatically with the maximum volume reaching five times the normal dry weather flow. This can result in the volume discharged at Gunnamatta being as high as 700ML/day.

The reduction of contaminants, especially heavy metals and persistent organic components entering the sewerage system by implementing appropriate wastewater management practices. Daily, at least 33 million litres of Trade waste is discharged at Gunnamatta.

Discharging the wastewater in an environmentally acceptable manner. This does not include ocean outfalls and particularly does not include extending an existing outfall. The coast of New South Wales is seeing effects from Sydney's deepwater outfalls depositing effluent in the vicinity of Curl Curl. Victoria has a great opportunity to learn from Sydney's mistakes of applying a band aid to the problem of ocean outfalls instead of implementing a long-term, committed and sustainable approach.

• Acknowledgement of adverse health effects to Gunnamatta beach users as a result of the outfall
• Define the environmental effects considering anecdotal and scientific evidence
• Educate the public regarding where most of Melbourne's used water ends up and inadequate water management practice
• Educate the public about how they can influence the political process to bring about positive change to the environment
• Document community support in proportion to create public demand to change policy and implement sustainable water practice
• Provide an alternative for agricultural and horticultural industries on the Mornington Peninsula from using artesian water from the Bridgewater? Aquifer
• Upgrade the effluent for reuse on golf courses, agriculture and horticulture
• Adopt a solution for water treatment that is safe for use and economically viable
• Define the infrastructure required to transport upgraded effluent to next users
• Government policy to change from the "Kennetisation" of the water industry
• EPA to be structured and funded so pollution may be controlled and monitored. Tighter constraints for industry are to be mandatory
• The voice of the public is that industry is wasting too much water and the government is not responding
• Tighter domestic conservation of water is required. Melbourne has been modeled around the lush, green, English style garden and 30% of water supply to Melbourne is used on gardens. Cost effective treatment systems are available to reuse water from washing machines and showers.
• Realistic pricing policy to reflect the true value of water
• Solution process through dialogue required between Mornington Peninsula Shire, EPA, Melbourne Water, South-East Water, Department of Natural Resources and Environment

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