NSW Water Quality and River Flow Objectives About the Objectives Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water   Select from the scrolling list, statewide map or catchment list Select a catchment Barwon-Darling and Far Western Bega River Bellinger River Border Rivers Brunswick River Camden Haven and Hastings River Castlereagh River Clarence River Clyde River and Jervis Bay Cooks River Georges River Gosford and Northern Beaches Lagoons Gwydir River Hacking River Hawkesbury-Nepean River Hunter River Karuah River and Great Lakes Lachlan River Illawarra Lake Macquarie and Tuggerah Lakes Macleay River Macquarie-Bogan River Manning River Moruya River Murray River Murrumbidgee River and Lake George Nambucca River Namoi River Richmond River Shoalhaven River Sydney Harbour and Parramatta River Towamba and Genoa River Tuross River Tweed River Williams River

Brunswick River
Community comment on the objectives

| Contents | Background | Consultation | Objectives | WQOs | RFOs | Glossary | Bibliography | Map | At a Glance |

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

Overview

A community discussion meeting attended by more than 50 people was held in Byron Bay; a meeting for Aboriginal people was held at Lismore (attended by representatives of many north coast Aboriginal communities); and 89 written submissions were received. Some people expressed the view that the small coastal creek catchments to the south of the Tweed should be included in the Tweed River catchment guidelines rather than in these Brunswick River catchment guidelines, and this suggestion has been adopted.

Overall, the consultation process indicated a high level of community support for a healthy catchment, with good quality water and sufficient flows-from a resource point of view, or because people wanted swimmable waters, were strongly attached to the catchment and wanted to know it was healthy, or both.

Some members of the community reported considerable variation in conditions throughout the Brunswick catchment, which needed to be taken into account. Many people supported increased efficiency of water use, with improved management of the entire water cycle (including reuse) and upgraded sewage treatment facilities, particularly in urban areas. There were also calls for incentives to facilitate development of innovative solutions to some of the problems associated with these issues.

Water quality and value of the resource

The majority of submissions supported a wide range of environmental values, and the objectives needed to protect these values. A healthy aquatic ecology (protection of aquatic ecosystems), safe swimming (primary contact recreation) and water looking pleasant and clean (visual amenity), were strongly supported. Other environmental values that attracted broad support included being able to drink the water after some treatment (drinking water supply), being able to irrigate (irrigation water supply), being able to use the water for household uses (homestead water supply), and supply of water for livestock (livestock water supply).

Most respondents wanted unpolluted water, healthy riparian (waterside) zones, and a diversity of native animals with their habitats protected. A broad range of environmental issues within the catchment was highlighted (see 'Major issues', below).

There was widespread recognition that achievement of the objectives would have some cost for the community, although many submissions indicated that achieving a healthy catchment was worthwhile. Some respondents considered that the indicative cost figures included in the discussion papers (EPA 1997) would need a lot more refinement before they could be of practical use to the community. Most respondents strongly supported spreading the costs throughout the community rather than targeting a particular sector, as they recognised that the community as a whole would benefit from achieving good water quality and flow regimes that protected both human and environmental health. There were particular concerns about potential costs for upgrading sewage treatment plants and improving the management of stock access to creeks.

River flows

Some people thought the river flow objectives needed to be better tailored to reflect the unique character of the Brunswick River catchment. Overall, the responses indicated that the community regarded the most important flow issues as being related to low or absent flows, the dependence of adjacent wetlands on inundation from the river or estuary, managing groundwater (both for sustainable use and to minimise the exposure of acid sulfate soils), retaining some natural variability in the flow regime, minimising the impact of instream structures, and protecting the estuary. The river flow objectives which caused the most potential concern (particularly to irrigators) were those that focused on controlling access to water at times when the river was flowing little or not at all.

Major issues

The process of developing the objectives identified several major issues that need progressive action to achieve a healthy and viable Brunswick River system. Comment on some of these is included in Section 3, as part of the supporting information for the recommended objectives. Recommended action on these issues can be summarised as follows:

• Work out a way to achieve environmental objectives that strengthens (not threatens) the local economy. Use local knowledge and enthusiasm for sustainability.
• Improve water quality monitoring and reporting arrangements.
• Overcome the problem of pollution caused by overloaded sewage treatment plants.
• Protect existing riparian vegetation and restore it where necessary. Associated with this are the needs to protect the habitat of native animals, revegetate where necessary, and reduce erosion, sedimentation, weed infestation and land degradation.
• Control the impacts of urban development and rural residential development near waterways.
• Improve management of the water resource. Use of water is increasing and the supply is diminishing. People want all water uses to be adequately monitored and accounted for.
• Control the infestation of Koi carp in the non-tidal section of the main arm of the Brunswick River.
• Reduce the stress on rivers where this has been identified as an issue.
• Protect high-conservation subcatchments. As a guide, rivers in these subcatchments should not be allowed to further degrade in water quality or flow regime, and may need restoration where water quality is poor, the flow regime has changed, or habitat has been lost or degraded.
• Provide more information on managing aquatic environments and water resources. In particular, there were calls to improve the information base on water quality, flow monitoring and biological health.
• Respect Aboriginal spiritual and cultural values associated with rivers, creeks, and 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 associated with the interim environmental objectives. Broad community education was also seen as having a useful role.

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 and Salt Action. At the Commonwealth level, programs are being funded through Landcare and the Natural Heritage Trust.

Where programs such as these are already under way 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