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Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour
Community comment on the objectives

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• Overview
• Water quality and value of the resource
• River flows
• Major issues
• Existing programs

Overview

A community discussion meeting attended by 60 people was held at Urunga, a meeting for Aboriginal people was held at Kempsey (attended by represent-atives of many mid-north coast Aboriginal comm-unities) and 36 written submissions were received.

Some members of the community expressed the view that the Bellinger, Nambucca and Coffs Harbour catchments should not have been combined in one catchment report, as was done in the discussion paper (EPA 1997), so the Nambucca catchment is dealt with in a separate set of guidelines. Some people also considered that Bellinger and Coffs Harbour catchments should each be covered in separate sets of guidelines, but that suggestion was not adopted.

Water quality and value of the resource

The community identified a wide range of environmental values that it wished to protect, including recreation and tourism, agriculture and irrigation, aquatic ecosystems, drinking water, feelings of attachment and well-being associated with knowing the catchment was healthy, and production of fish, shellfish and crustaceans in the lower estuarine areas. Some people wanted to be able to drink untreated water direct from streams, but the NSW Government does not consider this a healthy practice. There was general support for achieving high water quality levels, or protecting existing water quality if it was already suitable. Overall, the highest water-quality option (basic river health and advanced human uses) was the most commonly nominated option for the Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour catchments, but there were divergent views about the actions that would be needed to achieve this objective. Some people considered that this equated to the option of 'leave as is' where existing water quality was satisfactory, whereas others considered this option would need concerted action to improve existing water quality.

These differing perspectives reflect the wide variation in water quality in the Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour catchments, which needs to be taken into account in developing and implementing water management plans. It was also recognised that timetables for achievement would vary throughout the catchments, with local circumstances needing to be taken into account, particularly in areas experiencing impacts from urban development.

Some local agricultural interests indicated that they found the interim environmental objectives, for both water quality and river flows, 'totally unacceptable' in the form presented for community comment.

The community recognised that there would be some costs involved in achieving good water quality, and generally indicated that the costs should be spread across the broader community (instead of narrowly targeting a limited number of groups), since the benefits of a healthy river system could be enjoyed by the community as a whole. Concerns were also expressed about the degree to which stock access to streams would need to be managed, and who would pay for any infrastructure required-particularly in the Bellinger River catchment.

River flows

The community expressed a range of views regarding river flow objectives, with some indicating that most objectives were relevant to the Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour catchments, while other considered only a few were relevant. The objectives mentioned most often were protecting the resource at times of no and low flows, managing groundwaters, minimising the impact of instream structures and maintaining estuarine processes. Potential access restrictions associated with protecting pools and low flows caused most concern for people currently extracting water from the river, and some people also wanted more information on what the suggested targets for these objectives would mean in practical terms.

People also wanted improved monitoring and access to information on both the amounts of water being extracted and recent water quality data. Some said that any access restrictions required in future should be imposed equitably.

Major issues

The process of developing the objectives has identified major issues that need progressive action
to achieve healthy and viable Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour catchments. Comment on some of these is included in Section 3, as part of the supporting information for the recommended objectives. Action suggested is summarised as follows:

• Control bacterial and viral contamination in estuarine areas. This was seen as an important issue, given its potential implications for the oyster-growing industry, and for recreation and tourism, in the Bellinger River and Coffs Harbour catchments. People asked for improved effluent treatment and for environmentally friendly effluent-reuse schemes.
• Control excessive riverbank erosion and protect existing riparian vegetation (restoring it if need be). This was a major issue. Associated issues were protecting the habitat of native animals, reveget-ating in non-riparian areas where necessary, and generally reducing erosion, sedimentation, weed infestation and land degradation.
• Monitor and account for all uses of water under riparian access rights, because use of water is increasing.
• Mitigate present impacts, and improve planning to minimise future impacts on river systems from urban and rural residential developments (including the effects of stormwater).
• Reduce the impacts on water quality, recharge and river flow rates from forestry activities in various areas of the catchment.
• Reduce the stress on rivers where this has been identified as an issue.
• Improve controls on the use of pesticides to avoid potential water quality impacts arising from use. This was a major concern for some members of the community.
• Protect rivers with high-conservation values. As a guide, such rivers should not be allowed to further degrade in water quality or flow regime, and may require restoration where they have poor water quality, a changed flow regime, or habitat loss or degradation.
• Improve management of estuarine and lower floodplain areas. Particular concerns are water quality (with acid sulfate soils occurring extensively in the lower Bellinger River, and in areas of Pine, Bonville, Boambee, Newports, Coffs and Moonee creeks); and increased nutrient levels from both point sources and stormwater runoff from farms and towns.
• Provide more information on managing aquatic environments and water resources. In particular, people wanted the information base on water quality, flow monitoring, and biological health to be further developed.
• Improve the management of cattle access to streams-a significant issue for some of the community, particularly in the Bellinger River catchment.
• Respect Aboriginal spiritual and cultural values associated with rivers, creeks, wetlands and lakes; and traditional Aboriginal management roles in, and uses for, these areas-including as a source of traditional foods that are safe to eat.
• Enable the local community to be actively involved in developing future strategies and actions assoc-iated with the interim environmental objectives.

Existing programs

Some of the above issues already receive considerable attention and resources. Communities, through Landcare and other programs, are undertaking important on-the-ground projects. The NSW Government has established and funded programs such as Blue-Green Algae Management, Estuary Management Program, Floodplain Management Program, Wetlands Action, the Country Towns Water Supply and Sewerage Program, Salt Action, and the NSW Shellfish Quality Assurance Program. At the Commonwealth level, programs are being funded through Landcare and the Natural Heritage Trust.

Where programs such as these are already underway in the catchment, they need to be acknowledged and, where possible, incorporated in water and estuary management plans.

This page was published 1 May 2006