Catchment Management Plan - Hunter Water

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“Preventive measures by their1.6 Catchment management environmental stewardship in catchmentsand climate changehas broad environmental and socialnature should be applied as close tooutcomes, including mitigating andthe source as possible, with a focus “According to many experts, water managing the impacts of climate change.on prevention in catchments rather and its availability and quality will1.Opportunities for climate changethan sole reliance on downstream be the main pressure on, and issues mitigation in catchmentscontrol.” 1for, societies and the environmentThere has not yet been a unilateralunder climate change.” - IPCC 2agreement on the depth of cuts inThe barriers that reduce the risk of agreenhouse gas (GHG) emissionswater quality incident are listed at thenecessary to mitigate the risk ofThere is strong scientific evidencetop of Figure 3 (below). The variousclimate change. Despite this, Hunterfor human induced climate change.protective measures that underpinWater’s GHG and Energy ManagementIt is recognised that Australia - andthem are listed alongside.Policy commits to no net annual GHGin particular the water industry - isincrease from 2008-2013 and catchmentvulnerable to the impacts of climateThe green shading that predominatesmanagement activities provide achange. There are two ways to manageon the right of the table indicates thatmechanism by which Hunter Water canthe risk of adverse impact, either:1barriers are generally robust for Huntermeet these targets. Vegetation withinWater’s treatment and supply system.catchments store significant carbon• attempt to reduce or halt the changeIn contrast, catchments, and to somestocks; maintaining these and pursuing(climate change mitigation) orextent dams, provide ‘developing’opportunities for carbon sequestration• live with its effects (climate changeprotection to drinking water quality.will have dual benefits of mitigationadaptation).It is evident from the table that we canagainst climate change and improving theimprove the integrity of our catchmentsquality of water through natural filtration.In practice, a combination of substantialin terms of minimising risks to sourcecuts to greenhouse emissions andwater quality.Hunter Water has a significanteffective adaptation policy will beopportunity to leverage catchmentrequired to combat climate change.management and climate change worksHunter Water recognises that goodPROTECTIVEBARRIERSMEASURESCATCHMENTS RESERVOIR TREATMENT DISINFECTION CHLORINE CLOSEDSYSTEMStools for identificationof water quality riskslegislativecontrolseffective stakeholderrtelationshipsmonitoring programresearchroutine inspectioncommunity educationN/Aemergency responseplansFigure 3: Barriers to protect drinking water quality. Efficacy of each barrier is indicated by green shading (robust), orange (developing)1 NHMRC and NRMMC (2004) Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, 20042 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Technical Paper VI - June 2008CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN . ssS . 001 . JUNE20108
as it provides multiple environmentalbenefits. We have greatest influenceover freehold land and on public landsadministered by NSW Governmentagencies, which together cover aboutone third of the catchment area. HunterWater has been working with otheragencies to develop NSW Governmentwide objectives, strategies anddirections for managing public landto combat climate change 3 . Prioritymitigation strategies relevant to HunterWater’s catchments include:• increasing carbon sequestrationcapacity, especially on vacant ordegraded land and• reducing greenhouse gas emissionsfrom land management activities.2. Climate change adaptation incatchmentsManagement of catchments for waterquality and quantity needs to beresilient and responsive to changes tothe biophysical environment arisingfrom climate change. Implementing aregularly updated catchment plan thatis based on scientific observation allowsHunter Water the ability to respondto environmental change. Effectiveplanning in catchments for water qualityin many ways overlaps with planning forclimate change adaptation.• Adaptation through collaborationand innovation:For appropriate planning to occur, thereis a need for a collaborative approachacross geographical boundaries andlevels of government. People must finddifferent solutions through innovativeapproaches. Hunter Water understandsthat building and sharing knowledgeis cornerstone to effective planning,whether it be land use planning for waterquality or climate change.• Adaptation to increased stormintensity:In its National Climate ChangeAdaptation Framework 4 , COAGrecognised that a change in the patternof Australia’s rainfall due to climatechange presents one of the mostsignificant challenges to Australiangovernments. More concentratedrainfall events have human healthimplications through the increased transportof human disease due to wastewateroverflows. Higher peaks can mobilise soilsby erosion, thereby reducing water qualityand increasing treatment cost. Hunter Waterrecognises that it has an important role inmaintaining the quality of its source waterthrough proactive catchment planning.• Adaptation to broad scale changes invegetation:The predicted change in distribution ofvegetation communities may have animpact on the natural filtration of water.There is potentially an increased frequencyof algal bloom in rivers and dams dueto reduced natural nutrient attenuation.Hunter Water’s catchments cover a diversetopographic and wide spatial area. Thecatchments have a diversity of climates andsoil landscapes. Catchment activities thatimprove riparian vegetation may increasethe resilience of flora and fauna to climatechange by allowing migration of plants andanimals to favourable areas.• Adaptation to increased bushfirefrequency and intensity:Under some climate change scenarios,increased bush fire frequency andintensity results in loss of vegetationand subsequent reduction in waterquality. More intense fires may reducethe ability to use particular sourcewaters or necessitate additional watertreatment capability. Using HunterWater’s Enterprise Risk ManagementFramework, bushfire preparednessis the priority risk to Hunter Waterfrom climate change. Part 3 of thisdocument outlines how Hunter Waterwill produce a Bushfire ManagementPlan that will be updated withreference to climatic conditions.3 NSW public land and climate change 2010-2015, NSW Government4 Council of Australian Governments National Climate Change Adaptation Framework – endorsed 2007CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT PLAN . ssS . 001 . JUNE20109
Page 2 and 3: Table of contentsMessage from the M
Page 4 and 5: Executive SummaryWater supply busin
Page 6 and 7: Part 1: Introduction1.1 DOCUMENT Pu
Page 10 and 11: Part 2: Our drinking water catchmen
Page 12 and 13: 2.3 A snapshot of Hunter Water’sc
Page 14 and 15: NBarrington TopsNational ParkChiche
Page 16 and 17: 2.6 Grahamstown DamCatchmentarea115
Page 18 and 19: 2.7 The Tomago SandbedsCatchmentare
Page 20 and 21: 2.8 The Tomaree (Nelson Bay) Sandbe
Page 22 and 23: 2.10 The Paterson andAllyn RiversCa
Page 24 and 25: 3.1 Element 1: Identify thetop haza
Page 27 and 28: 637 6000williams river2Sinclairs Hi
Page 29 and 30: Using this model it is possible to
Page 31 and 32: 3.2.4 Hunter Water’s visionfor le
Page 33 and 34: Freudenberg (1999) 9 recommendsthe
Page 35 and 36: 3.4.3 Recent improvementsto the mon
Page 37 and 38: 3.5.2 Hunter Water’s vision forca
Page 39 and 40: 3.7 Element 7: EngagE thecommunityO
Page 41 and 42: Appendix A:Items to observe during
Page 43 and 44: Appendix C:The Land newspaper adver
Page 45 and 46: Appendix E:Graphic used to illustra

Catchment Management Plan - Hunter Water

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