Melbourne Water Corporation Annual Environment and Public Health Report 1997-98 CONTENTS 1 Foreward 2 The Urban Water Cycle 3 Risk Management 5 1997/98 Significant Achievements 6 Managing Melbourne’s Water Supply 13 Managing Melbourne’s Waterways and Drainage Systems 19 Environmentally Responsible Sewerage Management 27 Appendix A 29 Appendix B 37 Appendix C 41 Appendix D 48 Appendix E 54 Appendix F 55 Appendix G 57 Feedback Sheet FOREWARD Melbourne Water’s achievements in environment and public health management during 1997/98 were the result of a clear focus on risk and the appropriate allocation of resources. This approach demonstrates Melbourne Water’s commitment to its new risk management policy with two of the major risk focus areas being environment and public health. A further new initiative is the independent verification of Melbourne Water’s Environment and Public Health Report. The verifier’s statement will provide assurance that the report’s assertions are an accurate and a sound record of Melbourne Water’s performance. Melbourne Water is also committed to continually improve its performance. During the coming year, an environment and public health improvement plan will be produced and the organisation will work towards maximising the benefits from the interdependencies that exist between its water, waterways and drainage and sewerage groups. Public accountability is of major importance to Melbourne Water and a complete set of compliance data is contained in the appendix to this report. Comparison with the previous two years performance is included where appropriate. I am keen to ensure that Melbourne Water’s reports are readily accessible and a reference group will be appointed to provide comment on them. Your comments and suggestions would also be appreciated and a feedback sheet is included in this report. I trust that you will find this publication an interesting and informative account of Melbourne Water’s environment and public health performance in 1997/98. Brian Bayley Managing Director 1 THE URBAN WATER CYCLE Melbourne Water has a significant role in the management of the urban water cycle. Three retail water companies, South East Water, City West Water and Yarra Valley Water provide water and sewerage services to the Melbourne community. Bulk water is provided by Melbourne Water to the retail companies who deliver water to their customers. Waste from customers is collected by the retail companies and provided in bulk to Melbourne Water for treatment and discharge to the environment. Municipal councils collect stormwater from local drainage catchments and pass it onto regional drainage systems managed by Melbourne Water. The urban water cycle includes three types of catchment. Forested catchments in the headwaters of the Yarra and Thomson Rivers. Water is harvested from these catchments, stored in major reservoirs to provide security against drought, and transported to Melbourne for use in homes, offices and factories. Water is also released from water storages to maintain healthy flows in rivers and creeks downstream. Urban and agricultural catchments collect rain water in pipes and drains from the roofs, roads, carparks, gardens, paddocks, open space and sportsgrounds in and around Melbourne. This water eventually reaches the Yarra, Maribyrnong and other rivers before flowing into Port Phillip and Westernport bays. Water not collected in pipes either percolates into the soil as groundwater to recharge underground aquifers or flows into the nearest water body. Melbourne Water aims to work with local councils, the Environment Protection Authority, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and local communities to improve the quality of Melbourne’s waterways. Sewerage catchments collect wastewater and transport it to Melbourne Water’s Eastern Treatment Plant at Carrum and Western Treatment Plant at Werribee . It is treated and discharged under EPA licence to Bass Strait and Port Phillip Bay respectively. Melbourne Water’s aim is to maximise water recycling to reduce the volume discharged to the environment and to reduce the need for any further augmentation of the water supply. 2 RISK MANAGEMENT Melbourne Water’s risk management policy requires that risk management is applied consistently throughout the organisation. A Risk Audit Procedure which is based on risk focus areas covering Melbourne Water’s activities monitors compliance with the policy. The risk focus areas are: Finance Assets Environment Strategic Positioning Insurance Corporate Governance Managing Risk in Melbourne Water Public health OH&S and People Contracts Records Public issues Information System Elements of management systems developed to address the is the use of relevant parameters from the Australian risk focus areas include: Drinking Water Guidelines. • identifying impacts and regulatory obligations; Corporate Policies for environment and public health guide • establishing policies to guide activity; management activity. In some cases specific polices are developed for priority issues and examples are the “No • ensuring day to day management is satisfactory; Sewage Spills” and “Community Relations” policies. • developing improvement plans where required; Copies of the Environment and Public Health Policies are in • reporting internally and externally so that information is Appendix A. available for decision making; • involving the community in appropriate ways; and New Format for Next Years Report • auditing and reviewing activities to make sure they are This will be the last annual environmental and public health meeting stated objectives. report in the current format. Future reports will be prepared as components of a three part reporting process. At the Environment and Public Health Policies same time as Melbourne Water’s Annual Financial Report is released, two companion reports will be released covering Two of the risk focus areas are environment and public environmental performance and socially responsible health. Application of the risk management policy means performance. Public health matters will be included in the that Melbourne Water is fully aware of its environmental socially responsible component. and public health responsibilities and actively manages them to make sure it complies with relevant legislation. The new format will also contain more explicit performance Where there are no statutory requirements, Melbourne indicators and reporting will be against these. A document Water adopts the most appropriate guideline. An example detailing environmental and social improvement plans for Melbourne Water will be released in May of each year. 3 Incident Reporting Framework Melbourne Water has developed an incidents hierarchy for reporting purposes. In this report the number of incidents during 1997/98 is compared with previous years. Incident Level Broad Description of Incident Level* Five Catastrophic incidents neededing resolution which have an irreversible environmental or serious public health impact Four Major incidents which are serious in nature and of longer duration that result in widespread community concern Three Incidents needing resolution with a significant environmental or public health impact Two Minor incidents which relate to statutory requirements and/or were of longer duration One Incidents needing resolution with a minor environmental or public health impact * Incidents need to be attributable to Melbourne Water On determining the level of the incident, other factors are taken into account. They include: Incident Comparison 95/96 - 97/98 110 • the degree to which Melbourne Water contributed to the incident; 88 • whether Melbourne Water had to suspend operations; 66 • whether the incident was within Melbourne Water’s control or influence; and 44 • the severity and duration of the incident. Number of Incidents 22 The following table shows the number of incidents which 0 occurred at each level in specific areas. Detail regarding 12345 these incidents is contained in the relevant section of the Incident Level report. 95/96 95/96 95/96 The graph (right) summarises how many incidents Melbourne Water has had over the last three years. Level Sewage Spills Odours Licence Breaches Other Total 95/6 96/7 97/8 95/6 96/7 97/8 95/6 96/7 97/8 95/6 96/7 97/8 95/6 96/7 97/8 5 000000000000000 4 000000000000000 3 100000000001101 2 34 26 17 4 1 0 67 41 4 1 1 7 106 69 28 1 25 10 30 28 42 18 0 0 0 4 8 21 57 60 69 4 Risk Management 1997/98 SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS The 100th anniversary of the first connection to • Improved efficiency in energy, chlorine and water use in Melbourne’s sewerage system was commemorated on 17 sewerage operations. August 1998. The anniversary was celebrated in a exhibition • Good progress made by CSIRO towards completion of at the Scienceworks Museum, the site of the original research for the Effluent Management Study at the pumping station. Eastern Treatment Plant. Public Health • Completed long term strategy to improve treatment and quality of effluent from Western Treatment Plant • Attained statutory and corporate targets for water quality • Appointed local consultative committees to review supplied to the Melbourne retail water companies. Environment Improvement Plans for Eastern and • Continued the water quality upgrade program with Western Treatment Plants improved disinfection works at 11 plants, new pumping • Signed a Stormwater Management Agreement with the stations at East Bittern and for the Emerald supply and EPA and local councils to help improve the an upgraded supply